How Classroom Composition and Size Shape Adolescent School Victimization: Insights from a Doubly Latent Multilevel Analysis of Population Data

Elisa Cavicchiolo, Giulia Raimondi (), Laura Girelli, Michele Zacchilli, James Dawe, Ines Di Leo, Pierluigi Diotaiuti, Tommaso Palombi, Andrea Chirico, Fabio Lucidi, Fabio Alivernini and Sara Manganelli
Additional contact information
Elisa Cavicchiolo: Department of Systems Medicine, Tor Vergata University of Rome, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
Giulia Raimondi: Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Rome, Italy
Laura Girelli: Department of Humanities, Philosophy and Education, University of Salerno, 84084 Fisciano, Italy
Michele Zacchilli: Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Rome, Italy
James Dawe: Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Universitas Mercatorum Telematic University, Pizza Mattei 10, 00186 Rome, Italy
Ines Di Leo: National Institute for the Evaluation of the Education System (INVALSI), 00153 Rome, Italy
Pierluigi Diotaiuti: Department of Human Sciences, Society and Health, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, 03043 Cassino, Italy
Tommaso Palombi: Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Rome, Italy
Andrea Chirico: Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Rome, Italy
Fabio Lucidi: Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Rome, Italy
Fabio Alivernini: Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Rome, Italy
Sara Manganelli: Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Rome, Italy

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-17

Abstract: Adolescent school victimization is a socially regulated experience, making it important to consider classroom-level compositional effects beyond individual characteristics. This study investigated the role of classroom characteristics, specifically, classroom socioeconomic status, average academic achievement, sex composition, immigrant density, and class size, in shaping students’ experiences of school victimization. Victimization was analyzed using a doubly latent multilevel modeling approach, which accounts for measurement error at both individual and classroom levels. The analyses drew on the entire Italian 10th grade student population (N = 254,177; M age = 15.58 years; SD age = 0.74) and a considerable number of classrooms (N classrooms = 14,278), a sample size rarely available in the social sciences. Results indicated that classroom characteristics played a significant role in victimization, beyond individual-level variables. The most important factors were sex and prior academic achievement: classrooms with a higher proportion of male students experienced greater victimization, whereas higher average achievement was associated with lower victimization. A greater proportion of second-generation immigrant students, but not first-generation students, was also associated with increased victimization. By contrast, classroom socioeconomic status and class size were not significant predictors of victimization. In conclusion, these findings highlight the importance of considering the additional influence of the classroom context for school-based interventions, particularly the composition of classrooms in terms of sex and academic achievement, when addressing student victimization.

Keywords: school victimization; doubly latent multilevel analysis; compositional effects; class size; classroom characteristics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/10/573/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/10/573/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:10:p:573-:d:1757400

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().