When school feels unsafe: bullying victimization, school climate, and adolescent emotional well-being

Abstract

The aim of the current study is to examine the relationships among bullying victimization, school safety, school belonging, teacher support, and emotional well-being using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 with 135,348 adolescents across 15 education systems. The study utilized survey-adjusted hierarchical regression analyses incorporating Balanced Repeated Replication (BRR) weights. Results indicated that bullying victimization was significantly and negatively associated with adolescents’ emotional well-being and perceived school safety. Additionally, school safety and teacher support were positively correlated with school belonging, while school safety, school belonging, and teacher support were positively associated with emotional well-being. Regarding gender differences, the interaction analyses indicated that the association between bullying victimization and school belonging was stronger among female than male adolescents, while the bullying-emotional well-being association did not differ significantly by gender. The findings emphasize the importance of fostering safe, supportive, and inclusive school environments in relation to adolescents’ emotional well-being and experiences of bullying.