School Social Climate and Generalized Peer Perception in Traditional and Cyberbullying Status

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were any differences in perceptions of school social climate and peers in terms of bullying status, and to investigate the psychometric properties of the School Social Climate and Generalized Peer Perception Scales. The students participated from six different cities in Turkey were in secondary and high schools. The sample consisted of 1263 students (612 male, 651 female), of mean age 14.92 years (SD = 2.07). The results revealed that adolescents who were not involved both in school and cyberspace perceived the school and their teachers more positively than bullies and bully-victims, and also victims in cyberspace perceived their teachers more positively than bullies. Furthermore, not involved adolescents in school and cyberspace perceived other students in school more positively than bullies. In terms of peer perception, not involved adolescents and bullies in school and cyberspace significantly differed from bully-victims, and also not involved adolescents and bullies in school differed significantly from victims; not involved adolescents and bullies had more positive perception about their peers. Results also revealed that the Turkish adaptation of these two measurement instruments had sufficiently high validity and reliability.