School victimization, social support and psychological distress among school students in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China

Objectives: This paper examines how social support deterioration model applies to the context of school victimization in large-scale random samples from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China. Specifically, it examines how... [ view full abstract ]

Objectives: This paper examines how social support deterioration model applies to the context of school victimization in large-scale random samples from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China. Specifically, it examines how perceived social support (i.e., student perception of parent support, teacher support and peer support) mediate the relation between school victimization (i.e., student victimization by students and student victimization by teachers) and student psychological distress (i.e., depression, anxiety, and somatization). It further examines whether the overarching interrelationships and mediating effects among three diverse Chinese societies are similar or dissimilar.
Methods: Data were obtained from a random sample of over 2,000 junior-high students (grades 7 to 9) in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. Students were given an anonymous questionnaire, including items regarding basic demographics and school experiences.
Results: The results of structural equation modeling analysis provided a good fit for the sample as a whole. The final model accounted for 32% of the variance in student psychological distress. Overall findings showed that student psychological distress is weakly associated with student victimization by students and student victimization by teachers; however, student psychological distress is indirectly associated with student victimization by students and student victimization by teachers, mediated through perception of parental support, peer support and teacher support. Student perception of parental support has stronger mediating effects than other mediators. Similar findings were found for students from each society.
Conclusion: The findings imply that student perception of social support plays an important mediating role between exposure to school violence and student psychological distress. The findings provide empirical evidence and information to help school practitioners and policymakers justify developing or incorporating social support into prevention and intervention strategies. The findings suggest that interventions or policies promoting social support incorporated at a national level could be effective to alleviate school victimization across three Chinese societies.