Publications | March 2026
Abstract: Experiencing victimization is a significant concern in U.S. elementary schools. Classroom contexts, including the level of disruptiveness children experience, are theorized to contribute to victimization, yet empirical, especially causal, evidence remains limited. This study addresses this gap using fixed-effects models with time-variant covariates to account for unobserved, time-invariant confounds. Drawing on a subsample of children from third to fifth grade in a population-based cohort (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–11 [ECLS-K: 2011]; N = 11,373, Mage = 9.08 years), we examined whether elementary school children in disruptive classrooms are more likely to experience overall and subtype-specific victimization. We also tested whether exposure to classroom disruptiveness and its effects vary by sociodemographic characteristics, including children’s race or ethnicity, biological sex, disability status, and family socioeconomic status. Findings indicated that increased exposure to classroom disruptiveness predicted higher levels of self-reported overall, physical, verbal, and reputational victimization (effect sizes = 0.03–0.04). Male, Black children, children with disabilities, and those from low socioeconomic status families were more likely to be in disruptive classrooms across grades. However, limited evidence of moderation suggested that classroom disruptiveness may generally increase victimization experience, including for children across diverse sociodemographic backgrounds. These findings highlight the importance of including efforts to reduce classroom disruptiveness as part of multicomponent, multilevel strategies to prevent and reduce victimization in elementary school settings.
Published: Online March 29, 2026
Publication: Journal of Educational Psychology
CLI Author: Yoonkyung Oh, PhD
Funding: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences
Citation: Yang, Q., Hu, E. H., Park, J., Oh, Y., & Morgan, P. L. (2026). Are elementary school children bullied more when they attend disruptive classrooms? A child-fixed-effects analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication.