What are the Psychosocial Predictors of Peer Bullying Among Middle School Students?

This study aimed to examine the psychosocial predictors of peer bullying among middle school students. For this purpose, structural equation modeling (SEM), including peer bullying, school culture, parental rejection, basic psychological needs, and social emotional learning (SEL) skills, was tested. The data were collected from 565 middle school students [286 (50.6%) female, 279 (49.4%) male]. Based on SEM, school culture and SEL skills directly predict peer bullying; basic psychological needs predict peer bullying through SEL skills; school culture predicts peer bullying through basic psychological needs and SEL skills; parental rejection predicts peer bullying through SEL skills; parental rejection predicts peer bullying through basic psychological needs and SEL skills. In addition, the model explains approximately 34% of the total variance of peer bullying. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2024.