(PS11-C54) Teacher-student Relationship Quality and the Internalizing Symptoms of Bullied Children: Telling a Teacher About Victimization as a Potential Mediator

Introduction. Peer victimization during childhood is a risk factor for many negative outcomes, including depression, anxiety, suicidal behavior, and school dropout (Card & Hodges, 2008; Hong et al., 2020; Moore et al., 2017). Telling an adult is a commonly recommended anti-bullying strategy, and previous research finds that telling an adult can protect against negative outcomes associated with victimization (Shaw et al., 2019). However, bullied children are often reluctant to tell teachers about being bullied and tend to doubt whether teachers will be able to help (Fekkes et a., 2005; Oliver & Candappa, 2007). In this study, we examined whether children who view teachers as supportive are more likely to disclose about being bullied (Blomqvist et al., 2020) than children who lack a supportive teacher-student relationship. We also tested whether disclosure about peer victimization mediates the relation between teacher-student relationship quality (TSRQ) and children’s level of internalizing symptoms.

Method. Data were drawn from a short-term, longitudinal study (N = 375, 52% female, M age = 9.33 years, SD = 1.07)that spanned a single academic year. Internalizing symptoms were assessed via the Revised Children Anxiety and Depression Scale (Chorpita et al., 2005; ɑ = .86) and peer victimization via the Student Experiences Questionnaire (Kochenderfer-Ladd, 2004; ɑ = .88). Likelihood of disclosure was assessed using the What I Would Do Scale (Kochenderfer-Ladd & Pelletier, 2008; Cortes & Kochenderfer-Ladd, 2014) adapted to address physical, relational, and verbal forms of victimization (ɑ = .85). Teacher student relationship quality was assessed using an adapted version of the Network of Relationships Inventory (Furman & Buhrmester, 1985; ɑ = .70). Children were excluded from the analyses if they were missing data on key variables or did not report any peer victimization experiences, which reduced the size of our sample to 320.

Results. Bivariate correlations revealed a significant positive relation between TSRQ and children’s likelihood of disclosure (r = .20, p < .01), and between internalizing symptoms and level of peer victimization (r = .45, p < .01). However, analyses did not find evidence that likelihood of disclosure mediated the relation between teacher student relationship quality and internalizing symptoms.

Discussion. Children who reported having higher quality relationships with teachers reported a stronger likelihood of telling their teacher they were being bullied compared to children with lower quality relationships with teachers. However, we found no evidence that TSRQ predicted children’s internalizing symptoms. Given these findings, along with the recommendation for children to tell adults when bullied, teachers should strive to encourage positive relationships with bullied students to promote trust and understanding.