Bullying, Cyberbullying, Sexual Harassment, and School Climate: Indirect Effects of Perceived Peer Norms

This cross-sectional study investigated the extent to which bullying, cyberbullying, and sexual harassment correlated with victimized students’ perception of school climate and whether perceived peer norms had an indirect effect on this relationship. Participants included 788 high school students (mean age = 15.46 years) from a suburban area in the Northeastern United States. Data were collected from the baseline of a pilot study of a bullying and sexual harassment intervention. Traditional bullying and cyberbullying victimization were negatively associated with perceptions of school climate, although sexual harassment victimization was not. Perceived peer norms had an indirect effect on the relation between traditional bullying and sexual harassment victimization and school climate, but not cyberbullying victimization. Findings suggest that practitioners should attend to school climate and perceptions of peer norms in their prevention efforts to prevent school violence. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.