ABSTRACT
School exerts considerable impact on the cognitive, emotional, and social development of children (Ringeisen, Henderson, & Hoagwood, 2003), and is the primary social context for the peer culture in which bullying involvement occurs (Olweus, 1978, 1993). In particular, a school’s social and emotional climate is reported to determine in large part its eff ectiveness as both a learning environment (Brand, Felner, Shim, Seitsinger, & Dumas, 2003), and a socializing agent to promote healthy development and reduce maladaptive behavior in youths (e.g., Battistich & Horn, 1997; DeWitt et al., 2000; Goldstein, Young, & Boyd, 2008; Gottfredson, Gottfredson, Payne, & Gottfredson, 2005; Kuperminc, Leadbeater, & Blatt, 2001; McEvoy & Welker, 2000; Noam & Hermann, 2002). Nonetheless, few studies have examined associations between school climate and negative student characteristics that denote more serious psychiatric disturbance, and whether those associations continue into adulthood.
