Future Orientation and School Bullying Among Adolescents in Rural China

Abstract

This study examined the relations among future orientation, school bonding, and school bullying perpetration behaviors. Data were collected from 677 seventh- to ninth-grade adolescents in an area in Southwest China. Specifically, students completed the Future-Orientation Questionnaire, the Psychological Sense of School Membership scale, and the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire to assess their future orientation, school bonding, and bullying behaviors, respectively. Results indicated that students’ future orientation (toward education or occupation) was negatively associated with school bullying perpetration. Future orientation was also significantly associated with their feeling of school bonding. School bonding had a significant indirect effect ( b = .37) on the relation between future orientation in the educational domain and school bullying behavior, and also played a significant mediating role in the relation between future orientation in the occupational domain and school bullying perpetration ( b = .30). This research suggests that school bonding may be one mechanism by which children’s orientation toward future education or future occupation may have an effect on their bullying perpetration behaviors.