Bullying, Cyberbullying, and Adoption: What Is the Role of Student-Teacher Connectedness?

Impact and Implications Student-teacher connectedness showed a protective role against both bullying and cyberbullying, even in domestic adoptees. Promoting student-teacher connectedness may be a promising avenue for future prevention programs in this area. In addition, particular attention should be paid to meeting the needs of those at increased risk of disconnection, with this study pointing to domestic adoptees as a group that requires specific support. Bullying and cyberbullying have rarely been studied among the adoptive population, although the few studies available show adopted students frequently experience these phenomena. To address this research gap, this article examined potential differences in bullying and cyberbullying between domestic adoptees, intercountry adoptees, and nonadopted students, paying separate attention to frequent and occasional victimization and perpetration experiences. In addition, the aims of the article include analyzing student-teacher connectedness in these groups and exploring its potential protective role for the aforementioned bullying and cyberbullying experiences. The sample consists of 541 adopted adolescents (67.1% intercountry adoptees and 32.9% domestic adoptees) and 582 nonadopted adolescents aged 11-18 years who had participated in the 2017/2018 edition of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in Spain. Results show that the likelihood of involvement in bullying and cyberbullying (either victimization or perpetration) was lower for the nonadopted group, whereas domestic adoptees were significantly more likely to report these experiences. Furthermore, student-teacher connectedness was lower among domestic adoptees compared to their nonadopted peers. Finally, teacher connectedness was consistently associated with a lower likelihood of frequent bullying and cyberbullying victimization, and of both occasional and frequent cyberbullying perpetration. Overall, our findings are consistent with an increased risk of bullying and cyberbullying among domestic adoptees and a predominantly consistent protective role of student-teacher connectedness, although differences depending on the specific kind of experience deserve further examination in future research.