Do Classroom Relationships Moderate the Association Between Peer Defending in School Bullying and Social-Emotional Adjustment?

Peer defending has been shown to protect bullied peers from further victimization and so-cial-emotional problems. However, research on the effects of defending students demonstrated positive and negative social-emotional adjustment. To explain these mixed findings, researchers have suggested that associations between defending and social-emotional adjustment may be buffered by protective factors (i.e., defender protection hypothesis) or exacerbated by vulnerability factors (i.e., defender vulnerability hypothesis). In line with these hypotheses, the current study aimed to investigate whether relationships with teachers and peers moderate the association be-tween defending and social-emotional adjustment, i.e., depressive symptoms and self-esteem. This three-wave longitudinal study examined the association between peer-nominated defending, and later self-reported depressive symptoms and self-esteem in 848 fourth-to-sixth graders (53% girls; Mage = 10.61 years, SD = 0.90 at Wave 1). Peer-nominated positive and negative teacher-student relationships (closeness, conflict) and peer relationships (acceptance, rejection) were used. Clustered multiple linear regression analyses demonstrated that defending behavior did not predict later depressive symptoms or self-esteem. Contrary to our expectations, teacher-student closeness, peer acceptance and their combination did not play a protective role in the association between de-fending and social-emotional adjustment. In addition, teacher-student conflict, peer rejection and their combination did not put defending students at risk for social-emotional maladjustment. Thus, relationships with teachers and peers did not moderate the association between defending and later depressive symptoms and self-esteem.