School Climate and Mental Wellbeing

This assignment examines the influence of school climate on student mental wellbeing. It analyzes research findings on bullying, victimization, and the impact of feeling safe and connected at school. The analysis highlights peer support as a protective factor and emphasizes the ethical importance of fostering a safe and supportive learning environment. Additionally, it delves into the concept of 'feeling safe' within the school context as a key ethical consideration.

Running head: BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL
STUDENTS
A study on Bullying and Mental Health Continuum in secondary school students
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author’s note

1BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
Abstract
School climate has often been discussed as the quality and character of school life. Including
both the social and physical aspects of the school, school atmosphere could positively promote
behaviour, school achievement and the social & emotional development of the students. The
current study examined the association between students’ mental and emotional wellbeing and
factors pertaining to school climate. Recommendations for effective school policy and practice in
eight schools help to enhance the mental and emotional wellbeing of adolescents.

2BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
Table of Contents
Introduction: -..................................................................................................................................3
Statement of Purpose:-.................................................................................................................3
Purpose of the Study:-..................................................................................................................3
Research Questions:-....................................................................................................................4
Literature Review:-..........................................................................................................................4
Methods:-.........................................................................................................................................7
Study Design:-..............................................................................................................................7
Sampling / Participants:-..............................................................................................................7
Procedures:-.................................................................................................................................7
Data Analysis:-................................................................................................................................8
Frequencies:-................................................................................................................................8
Reliability...................................................................................................................................10
Factor Analysis..........................................................................................................................14
Bullying......................................................................................................................................14
Mental Health Continuum..........................................................................................................16
Ethical Consideration.....................................................................................................................17
Annotated Bibliography:-..........................................................................................................19

3BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS

4BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
Introduction: -
Statement of Purpose:-
The report is based on the statistical research of emotional and behavioural difficulties.
Aggregated responses from each item were compared to responses from a recent survey of
students attending schools in the southern metropolitan area of Adelaide. Association between
types of involvement in bullying, friendships and mental health status of the students of Australia
particularly identifies the abnormal behaviour of the psychological behaviour. Poor teacher and
peer relationships in school climate creates a lack of peer support, bullying, victimisation and
higher safety concerns that are related to declines in psychological adjustment such as self-
esteem and mental health issues such as symptoms of depression, anxiety and suicidality.
Therefore, we are evaluating the factors behind this to enhance moral identity development.
Purpose of the Study:-
Greater variability of the adjustment in response to bullying has also been detected. The
current study tested the relationship between mental and emotional wellbeing of the students and
factors pertaining to school climate targeting on the domains of safety, social relationships and
school connectedness. Data was collected using a self-completion questionnaire from 1678
students of 8 schools aged 11-16 years. Multilevel modelling was used to determine the healthy
school climate predictor of mental and emotional wellbeing of the students at each time point. A
sustained positive school climate promotes social, mental and emotional development and its
behavioural and learning outcomes guaranteeing both physical and social safety. Research of the
study has shown optimistic school climate is linked with enhanced academic achievement and

5BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
performance, psychological adjustment, satisfaction with school, sense of belonging, motivation
to learn, decreased manner issues and overall positive health of wellbeing.
Research Questions:-
What are the response rate among students of eight different schools?
What is the role of age and sex on the reliability of moral values and socio-economic approach?
How is mental health continuum distributed?
What are the main factors of happiness of the students?
How Bartlett’s tests result in moral development parameters?
How the component matrix and total variance resulting in both the moral evaluating parameter?
Literature Review:-
The first subject of study elaborates about data analysis about level of School satisfaction.
Responses of twelve questions are asked to gather responses about “school contentment”. A
Likert scale from 1 to 7 different levels (from very strongly disagree to very strongly disagree)
were introduced. To target analysis of “school connectedness and support”, we considered
“Questions about bullying”. Rigby and Slee (1991) developed the Peer Relation Scale (PRQ) that
involves the measurement of victim, bullying others and pro-social behaviour. Students
responded to the questions using the scale ranging from “never”, “once in a while”, “pretty
often” to “very often”. Questions from the pro-social subscale were involved in an assessment of
student relationships. Bully and victim subscales were included in an analysis testing the

6BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
relationship of cognitive and hampering empathy with involvement in bullying. Bullying
analysis indicates how often students have been bullied. The question asked to students is “How
often in this year have you been bullied or harassed by a student or students at school?” The
responses taken in nominal scale are “every day”, “most days”, “one or two days a week”,
“about once a week”, “less than once a week” and “never”. This question enabled the detection
of students who had been bullied once a week or more often. A question to determine how safe
they feel from being bullied at school asked to respond. The question is “How safe do you feel
from being bullied or harassed at this school?” The responses are “not at all safe”, “only safe
sometimes”, “usually safe” and “always or nearly always safe”. The next scale of study is “The
Flourishing Scale” that is a summary measure of self-perceived success of a person in crucial
areas such as engagement, relationships, optimism, meaning, purpose and self-esteem. This scale
supplies an indication of whether one is psychologically flourishing (good mental health). This
uni-dimensional scale provided a single score that was an indication of general psychological
well-being of the students. The responses were on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from “very
strongly disagree” to “very strongly agree”.
Second subject of study is to investigate the Social, emotional and psychological well-being of
the school students. According to Keyes, it is tested in Mental Health Continuum Scale. Using
various aspects of three dimensions of well-being that are social, emotional and psychological,
the scale indicates whether a person is flourishing, languishing or has moderate mental health.
Students were asked to respond to the questions about how often they experienced hedonic and
eudemonic feelings using the scale of “never”, “once or twice”, “about once a week”, “2 or 3
times a week”, “almost every day” and “every day”.

7BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
The positive impact of peer connectedness on moral identity supports the notion that moral
development is relational and that variables mediate their moral development through their
interactions with their surroundings. The diversity in finding suggests that an environment
inclusively differ according to the chosen influential behaviour. Hence, our finding that climate
dimensions of eight schools positively influence student’s moral identity that are peer
connectedness, affirming diversity, rule clarity and reporting, seeking support to fill the research
gap of the study. The findings of the study would provide educators with a number of integral
foci for the implementation of programmes and strategies to improve moral identity development
of the students.
Commonly, that known extent in which victims experience being bullied concurrently with
various ways and more particularly, whether this has an influence on how well they cope with
bullying. In the analysis, the associations between the six scales of the WHITS and the three
outcomes scales were disclosed by determining whether a particular parameter was able

8BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
statistically to estimate significantly the potential relationships between the hypothetically
correlated scales.
Methods:-
Study Design:-
Students (n=1678, ages 11-16 years) attending South Australian metropolitan high schools
completed the ‘Living and learning at school: Bullying at school” survey in which students
reported the ways they were bullied and the strategies they would use to deal with bullying. We
prepared an interview method based on “problem-focus”, “emotion-focus”, “approach” and
“avoidance”.
Sampling / Participants:-
The increase of adolescent mental health problems in Australia is properly documented and
tabulated. The sample of present study involves the data of 1678 responses of eight independent
Catholic secondary schools in South Australia. The data includes the information about age,
location and gender and socio-economic status of the schools involved.
Procedures:-
The data gathered from students was analysed using structural equation modelling. The
distribution of age, gender and demographic data are needed to be identified to qualify the
students for eight Catholic schools. To examine the psychometric properties of the measurement
model, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was incorporated to provide evidence to support the

9BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
convergent and discriminant validity. Reliability and convergent validity in terms of component
matrix were assessed by examining the item reliability of each measure, the composite reliability
of each construct and the average variance extracted. Item teliability was assessed by its factor
loading onto the underlying construct. The interpretation of composite reliability is similar to that
of Cronbach’s alpha, except that it takes into account the actual factor loadings rather than
assuming that each item is equally weighted in the composite-load determination.
To test the research hypotheses, the fitness of model was examined first. As Chi-square goodness
of fit test is sensitive to sample size, we have to fit the model using Comparative Fit Index (CFI),
Tucker Lewis Index (TLI) and Root Mean Square Approximations (RMSEA). CFI and TLI
values should be equal to the or greater than 0.9 and RMSEA values less than 0.05 to interpret
good empirical fit based on Kline’s recommendation.
Data Analysis:-
The analysis of the data shows that there were 1678 respondents. However, there is
missing data.
Frequencies:-
The analysis of the demographic profile of the students shows that most of the
respondents were in year 8, 28.5%. The least number of respondents in year 6 is 10.3%.
Table 1: year
Frequency Percent

10BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
Valid
year 6 172 10.3
year 7 231 13.8
year 8 479 28.5
year 9 396 23.6
year 10 352 21.0
Total 1630 97.1
Missing -1 48 2.9
Total 1678 100.0
In addition, 53.8% of the respondents of the study were males and 42.7% were females.
Table 2: gender
Frequency Percent
Valid
male 903 53.8
female 717 42.7
Total 1620 96.5
Missing -1 58 3.5
Total 1678 100.0
Further the age of the respondents ranged from 11 years to 16 years. The least number of
respondents (5.1%) were aged 11 years. The maximum number of respondents (26.2%) was aged
14 years.
Table 3: age
Frequency Percent
Valid
11 85 5.1
12 176 10.5
13 362 21.6
14 440 26.2
15 361 21.5
16 196 11.7
Total 1620 96.5
Missing -1 58 3.5
Total 1678 100.0

11BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
The analysis of the response shows that only 0.2% of the respondents were from school
F. School F is a catholic all girls’ school with admission from reception to year 12. Most of the
responses for the study (22.8%) was received from School E. School E is a catholic
coeducational school with admission from reception to year 12. Both the schools are located in
High SES area.
Table 4: school
Frequency Percent
Valid
A 214 12.8
B 232 13.8
C 49 2.9
D 154 9.2
E 383 22.8
F 4 .2
G 592 35.3
H 50 3.0
Total 1678 100.0
Reliability
Reliability studies were done for the factors of Bullying and Mental Health Continuum.
Cronbach’s alpha is used to study the reliability of the responses. Cronbach’s alpha measures the
internal reliability of the responses as well as how closely the responses of the students are
reliable.
Table 5: Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's Alpha Cronbach's Alpha Based on
Standardized Items
N of Items
.778 .781 16
Table 6: Item-Total Statistics

12BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
Scale Mean
if Item
Deleted
Scale
Variance if
Item Deleted
Corrected
Item-Total
Correlation
Squared
Multiple
Correlation
Cronbach's
Alpha if
Item Deleted
9a I get called names
by others. 28.28 39.548 .696 .683 .731
9b I like to make
friends. 27.09 44.204 .429 .654 .763
9c I get picked on by
others. 28.53 47.481 .471 .584 .761
9d I tell false stories or
spread rumours about
others.
28.98 41.292 .661 .765 .737
9e I am part of a group
that goes round
teasing others.
28.98 41.103 .577 .629 .746
9f I like to help people
who are being
harassed.
27.48 50.287 .092 .182 .794
9g I leave others out. 28.82 50.325 .266 .224 .774
9h I like to make
others scared of me. 28.93 49.514 .294 .375 .772
9i I share things with
others. 27.40 52.065 .031 .219 .790
9j I enjoy upsetting
wimps. 29.09 49.914 .339 .514 .771
9k I like to get into a
fight with someone I
can easily beat.
29.05 49.510 .351 .467 .770
9l Others make fun of
me. 28.57 47.538 .468 .652 .761
9m Others leave me
out. 28.53 48.191 .391 .459 .766
9n I get hit and pushed
around by others. 28.94 48.629 .434 .415 .765
9o Others tell false
stories or spread
rumours about me.
28.62 47.060 .456 .433 .761
9p I enjoy helping
others. 27.12 51.786 .053 .311 .789

13BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
The factor Bullying contains 16 items. The Cronbach’s alpha for Bullying is 0.781 (table
5). Thus the reliability of the responses of the students is found to be highly reliable. However it
is also found that some of the responses to Bullying are not reliable. The responses to the factors
i. 9f I like to help people who are being harassed.
ii. 9i I share things with others.
iii. 9p I enjoy helping others.
might not be reliable since the Cronbach’s alpha if item deleted for these items is higher
than the Cronbach’s alpha for all 16 items.
Table 7: Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's Alpha Cronbach's Alpha Based on
Standardized Items
N of Items
.953 .954 14
Table 8: Item-Total Statistics
Scale Mean
if Item
Deleted
Scale
Variance if
Item Deleted
Corrected
Item-Total
Correlation
Squared
Multiple
Correlation
Cronbach's
Alpha if
Item Deleted
14a Happy 55.46 216.053 .714 .627 .951
14b Interested in life 55.58 210.283 .796 .741 .949
14c Satisfied with life 55.75 207.546 .805 .734 .948
14d That you had
something important
to contribute to society
56.27 206.405 .764 .618 .949
14e That you belonged
to a community (like a
social group, your
school, or your
neighbourhood)
55.82 206.566 .730 .562 .950

14BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
14f That our society is
a good place, or is
becoming a better
place, for all people
56.24 204.402 .755 .661 .950
14g That people are
basically (generally)
good
56.03 209.313 .745 .625 .950
14h That the way our
society works made
sense to you
56.34 207.343 .699 .606 .951
14i That you liked
most parts of your
personality
55.87 206.506 .786 .643 .949
14j That you are good
at managing the
responsibilities of your
daily life
55.82 209.222 .762 .616 .950
14k That you had
warm and trusting
relationships with
others
55.62 209.866 .747 .622 .950
14l That you had
experiences that
challenged you to
grow and become a
better person
55.82 211.211 .701 .548 .951
14m Confident to
think or express your
own ideas and
opinions
55.89 209.634 .731 .579 .950
14n That your life has
a sense of direction or
meaning to it
55.89 202.897 .811 .684 .948
The factor Mental Health Continuum contains 14 items. The Cronbach’s alpha for Mental
Health Continuum is 0.953 (table 7). Thus the reliability of the responses of the students is found
to be excellent. The analysis also shows that the responses of all the students towards Mental
Health Continuum are highly reliable. There is a high level of internal consistency amongst the

15BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
responses for Mental Health Continuum since the Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted for the
different questions of Mental Health Continuum is lower than the total Cronbach’s alpha.
Factor Analysis
Bullying
Table 9: KMO and Bartlett’s Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .845
Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity
Approx. Chi-Square 11559.068
df 120
Sig. .000
Table 10: Total Variance Explained
Component
Initial Eigenvalues Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings
Total
% of
Variance
Cumulative
% Total
% of
Variance
Cumulative
%
1 4.596 28.723 28.723 4.596 28.723 28.723
2 2.515 15.720 44.443 2.515 15.720 44.443
3 2.226 13.915 58.358 2.226 13.915 58.358
4 1.253 7.829 66.187 1.253 7.829 66.187
5 .790 4.940 71.127
6 .726 4.540 75.667
7 .592 3.703 79.370
8 .550 3.440 82.810
9 .499 3.118 85.928
10 .476 2.975 88.903
11 .440 2.748 91.651
12 .371 2.318 93.969
13 .299 1.866 95.835
14 .255 1.594 97.429
15 .240 1.503 98.932
16 .171 1.068 100.000
Table 11: Component Matrixa
Component
1 2 3 4

16BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
9a I get called names by others. .705 .480 -.261
9c I get picked on by others. .671 -.281 .413
9l Others make fun of me. .665 -.308 .482 -.120
9d I tell false stories or spread
rumours about others. .657 .615 -.215 -.127
9n I get hit and pushed around by
others. .655 -.277 .199
9o Others tell false stories or
spread rumours about me. .636 -.245 .349
9k I like to get into a fight with
someone I can easily beat. .577 -.166 -.397 .398
9j I enjoy upsetting wimps. .574 -.152 -.478 .359
9m Others leave me out. .566 -.263 .472 -.130
9h I like to make others scared of
me. .518 -.170 -.419 .390
9g I leave others out. .461 -.132 -.297 .153
9b I like to make friends. .274 .861
9e I am part of a group that goes
round teasing others. .593 .601 -.224 -.120
9p I enjoy helping others. -.157 .360 .549 .436
9f I like to help people who are
being harassed. .250 .473 .492
9i I share things with others. -.159 .366 .395 .460
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
a. 4 components extracted.
Analysis of the responses towards Bullying shows that the KMO measure is 0.845. Thus,
the response towards Bullying is adequate and can be accepted. The Bartlett test of Sphericity is
significant (Sig = 0.000 at 5% level of significance). Thus the correlation matrix of Bullying is
not an identity matrix. Four of the questions account for 66.187% of the variance. The response
of four questions of Bullying is highly significant.

17BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
Mental Health Continuum
Table 12: KMO and Bartlett's Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .960
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity
Approx. Chi-Square 16825.065
df 91
Sig. .000
Table 13: Total Variance Explained
Component Initial Eigenvalues Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings
Total % of
Variance
Cumulative
%
Total % of
Variance
Cumulative
%
1 8.775 62.678 62.678 8.775 62.678 62.678
2 .837 5.978 68.656
3 .716 5.113 73.770
4 .527 3.766 77.536
5 .486 3.473 81.008
6 .450 3.216 84.224
7 .390 2.787 87.011
8 .322 2.303 89.313
9 .297 2.118 91.432
10 .277 1.979 93.411
11 .259 1.852 95.263
12 .240 1.714 96.977
13 .239 1.706 98.683
14 .184 1.317 100.000
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Table 14: Component Matrixa
Component
1
14a Happy .760
14b Interested in life .834
14c Satisfied with life .842

18BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
14d That you had something important to contribute to society .800
14e That you belonged to a community (like a social group,
your school, or your neighbourhood) .770
14f That our society is a good place, or is becoming a better
place, for all people .788
14g That people are basically (generally) good .778
14h That the way our society works made sense to you .737
14i That you liked most parts of your personality .822
14j That you are good at managing the responsibilities of your
daily life .799
14k That you had warm and trusting relationships with others .786
14l That you had experiences that challenged you to grow and
become a better person .743
14m Confident to think or express your own ideas and
opinions .772
14n That your life has a sense of direction or meaning to it .843
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
a. 1 components extracted.
Analysis of the responses towards Mental Health Continuum shows that the KMO
measure is 0.960. Thus, the response towards Mental Health Continuum is adequate and can be
accepted. The Bartlett test of Sphericity is significant (Sig = 0.000 at 5% level of significance).
Thus the correlation matrix of Mental Health Continuum is not an identity matrix. Only one of
the questions of Mental Health Continuum account for 62.687% of the variance. The response of
only one questions of Mental Health Continuum is highly significant.
Ethical Consideration
In the secondary schools, peer support was the protective predictor of wellbeing while feeling
less connected and less safe at school predicting mental challenges. Feeling safe at school is the

19BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
ethical factor of consideration. Peer support has strongest factor of ethics feeling connected to
school.

20BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
Annotated Bibliography:-
Aldridge, J. M. & Ala’i, K. (2013) Assessing students’ views of school climate: Developing and
validating the What’s Happening In This School? (WHITS) questionnaire, Improving
Schools, 16 (1), 47–66
Atik, G., & Güneri, O. Y. (2013). Bullying and victimization: Predictive role of individual,
parental, and academic factors. School Psychology International, 34(6), 658-673.
Espelage, D. L., & Swearer, S. M. (2003). Research on school bullying and victimization: What
have we learned and where do we go from here?. School psychology review, 32(3), 365-
384.
Grace Skrzypiec a , Phillip T. Slee a , Helen Askell-Williams a & Michael J. Lawson a, 23 Aug
2012. a Flinders Educational Futures Research Institute, School of Education, Flinders
University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Kaltiala-Heino, R., Rimpelä, M., Rantanen, P., & Rimpelä, A. (2000). Bullying at school—an
indicator of adolescents at risk for mental disorders. Journal of adolescence, 23(6), 661-
674.
Riekie, H., Aldridge, J. M., & Afari, E. (2017). The role of the school climate in high school
students’ mental health and identity formation: A South Australian study. British
Educational Research Journal, 43(1), 95-123.

21BULLYING AND MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM IN SCHOOL STUDENTS
Skrzypiec, G., Slee, P., Murray-Harvey, R., & Pereira, B. (2011). School bullying by one or
more ways: Does it matter and how do students cope?. School Psychology
International, 32(3), 288-311.