Fostering psychological safety in classroom assessments: moderated-mediation effects of bullying, gender and counselling

Given the growing concern about how school-based bullying undermines students’ academic success and emotional well-being, especially in high-stakes assessment environments, the study investigated the relationships between bullying frequency, psychological safety during assessments, counselling-based accommodations, and academic performance among senior high school (SHS) students in Ghana, with a focus on gender and regional variations. Guided by Edmondson’s (1999) theory of psychological safety, the research employed a quantitative correlational design involving 585 students from 12 public SHSs across Greater Accra, Central, and Ashanti regions. Multivariate statistical techniques were used to test three hypotheses related to direct, indirect, and interaction effects. Findings indicated that psychological safety significantly mediated the relationship between bullying and academic performance (indirect effect = − 0.775, 95% CI [− 1.23, − 0.43]), while the direct effect of bullying on performance became non-significant when psychological safety was controlled (B = 0.02, p = 0.921). Students who perceived higher psychological safety scored significantly higher in academic performance (B = 3.10, p < .001, η2 = 0.049). Counselling-based accommodations were found to moderate the negative impact of bullying on psychological safety (interaction term B = 0.22, p = 0.029, η2 = 0.008), suggesting that students with access to counselling reported greater resilience against bullying-induced threats to their assessment environments. Gender moderated the bullying performance link (B = − 0.88, p = 0.010), with female students more adversely affected. MANOVA results showed significant multivariate effects for gender (Wilks’ Λ = 0.934, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.039) and region (Wilks’ Λ = 0.882, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.043), and a smaller but significant interaction effect (Wilks’ Λ = 0.972, p = 0.012). The study advocates for gender-sensitive, regionally tailored interventions and suggests that the Ministry of Education institutionalize counselling-based accommodations during high-stakes assessments.