Perceived Economic Stress and Rural Children's Bullying Perpetration: Perceived Discrimination as a Mediator and Teacher Acceptance as a Moderator

ABSTRACT Children's bullying perpetration has become a serious and urgent problem. Based on the stress coping model, the current study attempted to test whether perceived economic stress was significantly related to children's bullying perpetration, and whether perceived discrimination mediated this association and teacher acceptance moderated this mediation process. A total of 2160 Chinese children (M age = 12.04, SD = 0.88) completed a series of questionnaires on perceived economic stress, bullying perpetration, and perceived discrimination. The study included 42 classes, with the homeroom teacher of each class completing the questionnaire on teacher acceptance. Results showed that children who perceived economic stress were more likely to exhibit bullying perpetration, which was mediated by perceived discrimination. Teacher acceptance moderated the association between perceived economic stress and perceived discrimination as well as the relation between perceived economic stress and bullying perpetration. Specifically, compared to children with low teacher acceptance, children with high teacher acceptance reported less perceived discrimination and less bullying perpetration when facing perceived economic stress. This study helps us to understand the internal mechanism of children's perceived economic stress and bullying perpetration.