Teacher-student relationships and peer victimization among Chinese children: The roles of peer status and gender

Previous studies have shown that peer victimization causes a great variety of severe adverse effects on children's development, and it is necessary to explore the influential factors and mechanisms of peer victimization. This study examined the associations between teacher-student relationships and peer victimization, as well as the roles of peer status and gender in China. The participants were 734 primary school students from Grades 5 similar to 6. Structural equation models were conducted to test the roles of peer status in the associations between teacher-student relationships and peer victimization, as well as the gender differences in the above associations. The findings showed that teacher-student closeness negatively predicted peer victimization, and teacher-student conflict positively predicted peer victimization. It was also found that teacher-student conflict but not closeness could negatively predict peer status, which was in turn negatively associated with peer victimization. The above associations did not vary across genders. The findings indicated that both teacher-student closeness and conflict were directly associated with children's peer victimization, and teacher-student conflict was indirectly associated with peer victimization via peer status. This implies that interventions for decreasing children's peer victimization should not only focus on improving teacher-student relationships but also target peer status.