You’ve got a friend(ly school): Can school prosocial norms and friends similarly protect victims from distress?

Testing the potential protective effects of school-level prosocial norms and having friends on peer victimization-related distress, this study examined whether one protective factor is particularly important in the absence of the other. An ethnically diverse sample (n=5,991) from 26 middle schools reported on peer prosocial behavior, social anxiety, loneliness, and perceived school safety; peer nominations assessed victimization and friends. Multilevel analyses revealed that 6th grade friendless victims felt significantly less anxious, lonely, and unsafe a year later in schools characterized by stronger peer prosocial norms (e.g., helping others). Additionally, victims in less prosocial schools experienced less socially anxiety if they had at least one friend. The findings suggest that attending a school characterized by prosocial peer norms can compensate for high social risk (victimized and friendless) following the transition to middle school, and having friends is important for bullied youth in less prosocial school contexts. These results highlight the importance of simultaneously studying relational and school-level protective factors; implications for anti-bullying interventions are discussed.