Relationships among Peer-Relatedness, Self-Confidence, Peer Victimization, Social Anxiety and School Satisfaction in American High School Students

Background: Poor peer relationships and peer victimization can enhance anxiety and diminish adolescents' school experiences, whereas positive peer relationships and self-confidence can enhance school satisfaction. These experiences may be particularly relevant in physical education (PE) settings; yet, little is known about the roles that peers in PE play in students' adjustment (e.g. self-confidence, anxiety, school satisfaction). Purpose: The purpose of the study was to examine whether and to what extent (1) student perceived peer-relatedness support, and frequency of peer victimization (i.e. witnessing, victimization, and perpetration) explain social anxiety in PE, and (2) student perceived peer-relatedness support, and self-confidence in PE explain student perception of school satisfaction. Design: This is a descriptive-analytic study utilizing multi-stage random sampling methods for recruitment. Participants included American high school students (N = 224; grades 9-12; female = 53.2% male = 36.8%) aged 14-18 years (M[subscript age] = 15.25, SD = 0.97) who completed an electronic survey containing five total instruments to measure peer-relatedness support, frequency of peer victimization, social anxiety in PE, self-confidence in PE, and perception of school satisfaction. Results: Results from hierarchical multiple regression revealed that peer-relatedness in PE was important regarding social anxiety experienced in PE ([beta] = -0.24; p = -0.29) explaining 7.3% of the variance, and even contributed towards overall school satisfaction ([beta] = 0.26; p = 0.34) explaining 11.1% of the variance. Higher levels of peer-relatedness were associated with lower levels of social anxiety and higher levels of school satisfaction. Further, self-confidence in PE was positively associated with overall school satisfaction ([beta] = 0.18; p = 0.30) explaining 1.9% of the variance. Students' victimization experience in PE, whether as a perpetrator, victim, or witness, was not significantly related to social anxiety ([beta] = 0.07, p = 0.14; [beta] = -0.90, p = -0.16; [beta] = -0.10 p = 0.06, respectively). Conclusion: Students experiencing positive peer-relatedness and self-confidence in PE tend to be more satisfied with school and less socially anxious in PE. However, predictor variables only explained a small percentage of variance in the outcomes of interest, particularly for social anxiety, suggesting that additional research is needed to elucidate additional factors associated with school satisfaction and social anxiety given their key role in students' overall adjustment. Nonetheless, this study suggests that the peer context within PE classrooms should be considered in future research and teachers' classroom practices.