School Violence, Social Support and Psychological Health Among Taiwanese Junior High School Students

• NCJ Number: 246899
• Journal: Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 37 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2013 Pages: 252-262
• Author(s): Ji-Kang Chen; Hsi-Sheng Wei
• Date Published: April 2013
• Length: 11 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper examines how peer social support mediates the association between school victimization and student psychological health among junior-high students in an Asian context Taiwan, and further examines how gender and ethnicity differ in the interrelationships of school violence, peer social support and psychological health.

Abstract

This paper examines how peer social support mediates the association between school victimization and student psychological health among junior-high students in an Asian context Taiwan, and further examines how gender and ethnicity differ in the interrelationships of school violence, peer social support and psychological health. Data were obtained from a large-scale random sample of 1650 junior-high students grades 7-9 in one diverse county of Taiwan. Students were given an anonymous structured questionnaire, including items regarding basic demographics and school social experiences. The results of structural equation modeling analysis provided a good fit for the sample as a whole. The final model accounted for 26% of the variance in student psychological health. Overall findings showed that student psychological health is not significantly directly associated with victimization by students and student maltreatment by teachers; however, student psychological health is indirectly associated with victimization by students, mediated through peer social support. Similar findings were found for both male and female and both Han Chinese and Indigenous students. The findings imply that peer social support plays an important mediating role between exposure to school violence and student psychological health. 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 across genders and ethnicities in Taiwan.