Why do some classes experience more harassment than others? According to a study conducted in the United States, school environments that are more disruptive slightly but sustainably increase the risk of violence among students.
In the United States, about one in four elementary school students report being a victim of harassment at least once during the school year.
Children who are frequently harassed are at greater risk of facing academic difficulties, suffering from poorer physical health, and developing disorders such as depression, anxiety, or addictions as they grow up. These consequences can persist into adulthood and contribute to situations of unemployment and financial precarity.
Most research on harassment focuses on individual characteristics of children, such as showing signs of aggression or having parents who use physical punishment at home. Children exposed to a strict or punitive education, even without physical violence, may also be more likely to adopt harassment behaviors.
However, overall harassment rates vary significantly from one class to another.
New research conducted by me and colleagues from the University at Albany in the United States and other institutions shows that the classroom environment plays a significant role in school harassment. Children have a slightly higher risk of being harassed when they are in classes frequently disrupted by behavioral problems or marked by a chaotic climate — even taking into account individual factors like their personality or family environment.
Our results show that harassment depends not only on the children themselves but also on the environments to which they are exposed at school.
Evaluating the Classroom Climate
We analyzed surveys conducted with teachers and students by the National Center for Education Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education between 2014 and 2016. These data, collected nationwide, involved teachers and children in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade.
Teachers had to assess whether their class was disruptive or not by indicating how many students had trouble paying attention, behaving properly, or following instructions. They also rated the overall disruption level in their class.
On the other hand, students indicated how often they were victims of harassment, whether it was teasing, insults, voluntary exclusion from games, or physical violence like shoving or hitting.
To ensure that these results reflected a real trend and not just a coincidence, we used a statistical method to verify if students reported more — or less — harassment situations depending on whether they were in more or less disruptive or chaotic classes over the school years.
In other words, we studied how changes in a child’s school environment were associated with variations in their own experience of harassment. This approach helps differentiate the effect of the class climate from differences related to children’s personal characteristics or their family environment.
Reducing Disorder in Classes
Traditionally, anti-harassment measures focus on individual student behaviors or family dynamics. Interventions may include teaching social skills to children or providing more support and training to parents to help them respond to their children’s behaviors.
However, programs targeting only bullies or victims are not always effective in preventing harassment.
Our results suggest that addressing disorder and disruptions in class is a viable approach to reducing harassment. The observed effects are modest but consistent, meaning that this trend remains visible even when rigorous statistical tests are applied. We believe that a better awareness of this connection could have a significant impact at the level of a whole class.
When teachers describe a class as disruptive, it reflects both the students’ behavior and the challenges encountered in managing a classroom filled with children. These challenges include maintaining students’ attention, encouraging appropriate behaviors, and ensuring they follow instructions.
In the most chaotic classes, students may talk simultaneously, stand up constantly, or have difficulty staying focused on their work. This creates an environment where it becomes harder to maintain order and can lead to a “contagion effect” of negative behaviors. Aggressiveness may then become more common and even reinforced within the group, increasing the risk of harassment.
Managing a chaotic class can also be emotionally taxing for teachers. They must spend more time dealing with disruptions and refocusing students on their work. This not only reduces the time and energy they have to prevent or address harassment situations, but also their ability to identify them from the outset.
At the same time, it is important to remember that highly disrupted classes often reflect broader issues, such as high student-to-teacher ratios, lack of school funding, or difficulties students face outside of school — poverty, housing instability, or trauma.
Better supporting teachers, including through professional development focusing on emotional support for students or the association between rules and positive or negative consequences, can help reduce disruptive behaviors in class.
The impact of classroom disruptions is also part of a broader context of social inequalities.
Past research shows that students from low-income families, belonging to racial or ethnic minorities, as well as students with disabilities, are at higher risk of being victims of harassment. Our study helps understand why: these students are more often enrolled in chaotic classes.
Next Steps
Harassment is a serious issue, often present in primary school, making prevention a priority. Our results shift the focus from the individual and family characteristics of students to the broader classroom environment.
Our work also suggests that reducing chaos and disruptions in class could be a promising approach to combating harassment. Further research will be needed to identify other factors related to class functioning and better understand how these dynamics contribute to harassment.
