School bullying and social-emotional competence: the mediating role of teacher-student relationships

Objective: To investigate how both school bullying and victimization affects social-emotional competence among Chinese preadolescents and early adolescents, with a specific focus on the potential mediating effect of teacher-student relationships. Methods: The School Bullying, Social-Emotional Competence, and Teacher-Student Relationship Questionnaires were distributed to 1,760 primary and secondary school students. Results: The findings are as follows: (1) School bullying had significant negative associations with teacher-student relationships and students' social-emotional competence. (2) Teacher-student relationships were significantly positively associated with students' social-emotional competence. (3) Both bullying and victimization could directly affect social-emotional competence, indirectly affect social-emotional competence through teacher-student relationships (effect size was 31.35, 18.54%, respectively). Conclusion: To mitigate the negative impact of school bullying on social-emotional competence, an intervention system should be established to restore deteriorated teacher-student relationships.