Longitudinal Link Between Bullying Victimization and Bullying Perpetration: A Multilevel Moderation Analysis of Perceived School Climate

Existing theories and empirical studies have evidenced the association between bullying victimization and bullying perpetration. However, it is still unclear what factors mitigate or alter this risk linkage between bullying victimization and bullying perpetration to reduce bullying incidents. Guided by the social-ecological theory, this study used a longitudinal design to examine the moderating role of school climate in the association between bullying victimization and bullying perpetration at both the within-person and between-person levels among Chinese adolescents across a 1-year period. Participants included 2,997 Chinese adolescents (M_age = 14.9, 49.7% male) from 5 secondary schools. Results suggested that students who experienced high levels of bullying victimization were also involved in high levels of bullying perpetration over time (i.e., the positive within-person effect of bullying victimization on bullying perpetration). Results also showed that the between-person level of perceived school climate interacted with the within-person level of bullying victimization to predict the within-person level of bullying perpetration (i.e., cross-level effects). More specifically, the magnitude of the positive association between bullying victimization and bullying perpetration at the within-person level was mitigated among students with higher perceptions of school climate at the between-person level. Findings of the study highlighted the causal effect of bullying victimization on bullying perpetration and the buffering role of perceived school climate in the longitudinal association between bullying victimization and perpetration, which was consistent with the risk-buffering model but not the healthy context paradox hypothesis. Furthermore, the findings provided implications for bullying prevention and intervention services by using multitiered systems of support in bullying prevention efforts and highlights the need for promoting positive school climate.