School Victimization, School Belongingness, Psychological Well-Being, and Emotional Problems in Adolescents

Although victimization is a serious problem in children and adolescents, research has commonly focused on risk factors and consequences of this experience and largely ignored factors that protect youth mental health and well-being from the effects of victimization. The purpose of the present study sought to investigate the longitudinal mediating effect of school belongingness on the association of school victimization with emotional problems and psychological well-being among Turkish adolescents. Using the short-term longitudinal approach, data was collected from 282 students in a public secondary school in an urban city of Turkey at two different time points. Students responded to questions concerning school belongingness, emotional problems, psychological well-being, and school victimization. Mediation analyses were conducted across the two waves of data. Findings revealed that both victimization and a low sense of belonging were independently shown to be significantly negatively correlated with emotional problems and positively correlated with psychological well-being. Results also demonstrated that victimized students who feel a sense of belonging to their school display fewer emotional problems and greater well-being than those who are victimized but do not feel a sense of belonging to their school.