ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1661567
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Ideas and International Perspectives on School Bullying: A Multidisciplinary ApproachView all 11 articles
How teachers' social-emotional competence affects bullying in rural schools: The chain mediating effect of students' social-emotional competence and classmate relationship
Provisionally accepted
Jin Ma1
Xihao Niu2*- 1University of Southampton Faculty of Social Sciences, Southampton, United Kingdom
- 2Minzu University of China, Beijing, China
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In recent years, bullying in rural schools has become increasingly prevalent. It is essential to identify the factors that influence bullying in rural schools to better prevent and manage its occurrence. This study focuses on Chinese rural students, examining the preventive mechanisms of teachers’ social-emotional competence in mitigating bullying in rural schools. Specifically, the study investigated the mediating role of students’ social-emotional competence and classmate relationship, both individually and as a chain, in this process. The findings indicated that teachers’ social-emotional competence does not directly reduce bullying in rural schools. Instead, it exerts its influence through the mediating effect of classmate relationship and the chain mediation of “students’ social-emotional competence–classmate relationship”. Based on these findings, efforts should focus on improving teachers’ social-emotional competence, enhancing students’ social-emotional competence, and fostering healthier classmate relationship to effectively prevent and control bullying in rural schools.
Keywords: teachers' social-emotional competence, students' social-emotional competence, classmate relationship, bullying in rural schools, Rural education
Received: 08 Jul 2025; Accepted: 27 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ma and Niu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xihao Niu, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China
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