Subjective Well-being, Bullying, and School Climate Among Chilean Adolescents Over Time

Negative relationships among peers, such as bullying, are risk factors for children’s life satisfaction (LS). This is due to their negative impact on youth development over time. LS refers to the evaluation people make of their lives and overall quality of life. Within the school context, there are several important dimensions to the development of LS among adolescents, such as peer relationships and also school climate. School satisfaction and school bonding are two dimensions of school climate which can affect the occurrence of bullying during the adolescence. Although there has been substantial research on children’s LS, little research has been done in South America using longitudinal data to examine the importance of school variables that influence bullying and LS. Thus, the purpose of the study is to examine the long-term effect of school satisfaction, bonding, and bullying on adolescent LS one year after bullying victimization. Structural equation modeling was used on a sample of 555 Chilean adolescents with a mean age of 13.5 years old of which 42.9% are females. School satisfaction was negatively related to bullying perpetration, but not to bullying victimization. Conversely, school bonding was negatively associated with bullying victimization, but not with bullying perpetration. Lastly, bullying victimization was associated with lower levels of LS one year after the experience, even when controlling for age and gender. Bullying perpetration had no effect on LS. These results highlight the importance of school variables and peer relationships for adolescent LS development over time and reinforce the importance of preventative initiatives in schools.