School Climate

Abstract: Introduction: Bullying and bystander behavior remain persistent challenges in school settings. Aim: This study examines how students’ perceptions of school climate and teachers’ willingness to intervene are associated with their likelihood to engage in different bystander roles (assistant, passive, defender). We also investigated the potential influence of individual characteristics, including gender, school grade, parents’ education, family structure, and students’ ethnicity. Method: The sample consisted of 16,639 students (Mage = 12.52 years, SD = 1.38; 53.2% girls) from 1,647 school units across the 13 educational regions of Greece. Results: Greek students were more likely to assume the role of defender in bullying incidents than students with a different ethnicity. A forward-stepwise multinomial logistic regression revealed that students’ positive perceptions of school climate were significantly associated with an increased likelihood of adopting the defender role, whereas no other significant predictors emerged. Discussion: These findings point to the role of students’ own perceptions of a positive school climate in fostering proactive bystander behavior and highlight the need for further research to identify additional factors influencing students’ engagement in bullying situations. We discuss the implications of these findings in the context of prevention strategies to strengthen interventions for bullying incidents.