School bullying and social-emotional competence: the mediating role of teacher-student relationships

ObjectiveTo investigate how both school bullying and victimization affects social, emotional competence among Chinese preadolescents and early adolescents, with a specific focus on the potential mediating effect of teacher-student relationships.MethodsThe School Bullying, Social, Emotional Competence, and Teacher-Student Relationship Questionnaires were distributed to 1,760 primary and secondary school students.ResultsThe findings are as follows: (1) School bullying had significant negative associations with teacher-student relationships and students’ social, emotional competence. (2) Teacher-student relationships were significantly positively associated with students’ social, emotional competence. (3) Both bullying and victimization could directly affect social, emotional competence, indirectly affect social, emotional competence through teacher-student relationships (effect size was 31.35, 18.54%, respectively).ConclusionTo mitigate the negative impact of school bullying on social, emotional competence, an intervention system should be established to restore deteriorated teacher-student relationships.