School bullying and life satisfaction among Spanish adolescents: The roles of belonging and teacher support in PISA 2022

This study examined how bullying victimisation, school belonging, and perceived teacher support relate to life satisfaction among Spanish adolescents using nationally representative PISA 2022 data. Participants were 29,105 15-year-old students with complete data on life satisfaction, bullying, belonging, teacher support, socioeconomic status, and sampling weights. Life satisfaction was measured with a single 0–10 item, and bullying, belonging, and teacher support were assessed using multi-item composites previously linked to adolescent well-being. Weighted linear regressions estimated associations, tested whether perceived teacher support moderated the bullying-life satisfaction association, and examined whether school belonging statistically mediated this association. More frequent bullying was associated with lower life satisfaction, whereas higher school belonging, greater teacher support, and higher socioeconomic status predicted higher life satisfaction. A small but statistically significant bullying × teacher support interaction suggested that the negative association between bullying and life satisfaction was somewhat weaker at higher levels of perceived teacher support. Mediation analyses indicated that school belonging accounted for a modest part of the bullying-life satisfaction association, with a sizeable direct association remaining. These cross-sectional findings provide contemporary evidence that reducing bullying and fostering students’ sense of belonging and supportive teacher-student relationships may help promote Spanish adolescents’ life satisfaction, while not establishing causal effects.