Staff Communication at School and Student–Student Relationship Quality in the Classroom: Direct and Indirect Effects on Students’ Experiences as Bullies, Bullied, and Bully-Victims

Abstract Bullying research is often based upon Bronfenbrenner’s socioecological model, focusing on contextual level aspects associated with individual bullying experiences. Thus, various relevant contextual determinants of bullying have been identified, including classroom climate and school climate. However, even if interpersonal relationships are defined broadly in the definitions of classroom and (especially) school climate, its empirical investigation is limited to student–student or student–teacher relationships. In the current study, we included aspects of teacher–teacher relationships in the analyses by investigating staff communication at school. We investigated the associations between staff communication, student–student relationship quality in the classroom, and students’ bullying experiences. In addition, we investigated if staff communication may be indirectly linked to students’ bullying experiences via student–student relationships in the classroom. The sample was drawn from 556 teachers (79% female, M age = 50.6, SD age = 8.44) and 2,071 students (49% female, M age = 13.63, SD age = 1.17) in 114 classes across 24 schools in Germany. Two-level- and three-level models were performed. Findings suggest that rivalry as an aspect of student–student relationships in the classroom (a part of the classroom climate) is associated with students’ bullying experiences as bullies, victims, and bully-victims. While staff communication is not directly associated with students’ bullying experiences, it is indirectly associated with it via rivalry in the classroom. The findings also show that staff communication at school is associated with student–student relationships in the classroom. The study has implications for school-wide anti-bullying measures that should also include teacher–teacher aspects, and that future research should endeavour to include both class-level and school-level contexts.