School-based Mentoring in Secondary Education: Its Effect on School Climate and Aggression Among Peers

Abstract

Background: School-based mentoring provided by teachers contributes to the ultimate goal of education: all-round student development and a good mutual coexistence. Aims: This study investigates secondary school students’ perceptions of a school climate and school-based mentoring provided by teachers; it also examines the relationship between the school climate and peer aggression, and the moderating effect that teacher-led school mentoring could have on this relationship. Methodology: A total of 441 students between 12 and 17 years old (M = 13.99, SD = 1.33) were surveyed in Cantabria (Spain); the high schools were selected by means of a random sampling of two-stage clusters. Findings: The results demonstrated a direct negative relationship between a school climate and school-based mentoring with respect to peer aggression victimization. Likewise, mentoring showed a moderating effect on the relationship between a school climate and peer aggression victimization. Further implications: These findings highlight the importance of the school climate in preventing peer aggression and the central role that school-based mentoring plays in the relationship between a school climate and peer aggression victimization.

Keywords

school climate school-based mentoring adolescence Secondary Education peer aggressions

Several studies showed that bullying is a significant problem amongst adolescents in Spain. Although the studies found different rates of peer aggression according to different criteria (e.g., frequency, type, etc.), depending on the evaluation strategies (Cerezo, 2009; Zych et al., 2016), it seems that around 50% of Spanish adolescents have been victims of peer aggression at least once (Larrain & Garaigordobil, 2020 ) and more than half of Spanish Secondary Education students state that they have witnessed peer aggression in the educational context (Dobarro, 2011; Lázaro-Visa & Fernández-Fuertes, 2018). At school, students are involved in different relationships and mentorship could be a key strategy to prevent peer aggressions considering that mentoring has beneficial effects on children’s peer relationships (Herrera, 2004).

The Importance of School-Based Mentoring

In Spain, school-based mentoring is understood as the practice of educational guidance provided by teachers and received by students during the academic year (9 months). It is considered as an essential element of the Spanish educational system (González & Velaz-de-Medrano-Ureta, 2014 ), because school-based mentoring provided by teachers contributes to the ultimate goal of education: all-round student development.

School-based mentoring is a form of professional socialization in which a more experienced individual acts as a role model, teacher, and protector to a less experienced protégé in order to develop and refine the protégé’s skills, abilities, and undeWrstanding (McQuillin et al., 2020; Weiss et al., 2019). Protégés consider mentors as contributing to changes in academics, self-regulation, and self-understanding (Deutsch et al., 2017).

In this sense, school-based mentoring can be described as an intrinsic process of teaching-learning which is continuous, systematic, intentional, collaborative, contextualized and integrated into the organization of the educational system. Mentoring also understands development as a process in which the person matures in an affective, social, and cultural context (Cyrulnik, 2008) such as that of schools, which is the context of interest in this paper. It is therefore essential that mentors are able to develop a relationship of sufficient closeness and quality with mentees (Lyons & McQuillin, 2019; Mullen & Klimaitis, 2021).

Mentoring, School Climate, and Peer Aggression

The school climate is a construct that alludes not only to the quality of interactions in the school, but also to the well-being that students experience and the acceptance and appreciation that they perceive among others (Oliva et al., 2011; Vila et al., 2021). Moreover, it reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures. A good school climate can foster youth development and learning that is necessary for a productive, contributory and fulfilling life in a democratic society, and is widely recognized as an essential element in preventing peer aggression (Cornell & Bradshaw, 2015).

School-based mentoring can therefore be an especially valuable instrument for promoting healthy and fulfilling human relationships, improving the school climate by making it more positive, stable, and enriching (Serrano, 2009), and by preventing peer aggression (Verdeja, 2013). A meta-analytic review found that, on average, youth participation in mentoring programs had benefited significantly in each of five areas of outcomes: emotional/psychological, problem/high-risk behavior, social competence, academic/educational, and career/employment (DuBois et al., 2002).

In Spain there is a certain consensus whereby it is considered that school-based mentoring takes place when work is devoted to personal development, self-reflection, the person’s potential, empathic relationships and social context (Expósito, 2014; Vélaz-de-Medrano-Ureta et al., 2018). Mentoring can be considered as a key element in the design and development of projects and actions to improve coexistence and reduce peer aggression in schools (Del Rey & Ortega, 2007). In Rizo and Picornell’s (2016) research, 77.7% of Secondary Education teachers considered mentoring to be a determining factor in preventing aggression, more particularly bullying. On the other hand, the incidence of bullying has been found to be associated with an unfavorable classroom climate, especially with respect to interpersonal relationships.

Some studies have identified an inverse relationship between a positive school climate and the existence of aggressive behaviors (Cohen & Freiberg, 2013), as well as the role that mentoring can play in promoting a culture of mutual care in schools (Etxeberria et al., 2017). Also studied is the role that teachers play in preventing aggressive behavior in schools (Lázaro-Visa et al., 2019) or in promoting a more positive school climate through the use of their authority and leadership (Etxeberria et al., 2017). It is possible that, due to the reasons mentioned above, the negative relationship between a positive school climate and the existence of peer aggression (both perpetration and victimization) can be moderated by teacher mentoring, although this has not been sufficiently studied.

The Current Study

A better definition of mentoring functions and skills in peer aggression prevention and the promotion of a healthier school environment is needed. For this, the role of mentoring in the relationship between a school climate and peer aggression needs to be explored in depth. Thus, this paper examines how that role functions, specifically to determine the moderating effect (i.e., whether it changes the shape of the relationship or significantly affects the degree of peer aggression).

Research questions

Taking into consideration the relevance of previous research, two investigative questions thus emerge: (1) how do students perceive the school climate, mentoring, and the existence of peer aggression?; and (2), does the school-based mentoring provided by teachers act to moderate the relationship between the school climate and peer aggression (i.e., perpetration and victimization)?

Method

Objectives and Hypothesis

This paper examines, on the one hand, the perception of high school students regarding the school climate, mentoring and peer aggression and, on the other hand, the role of teachers’ mentoring as a moderator of the relationship between the school climate and peer aggression (i.e., whether it changes the shape of the relationship or significantly affects the degree of peer aggression).

Taking into account the importance of mentoring, not only with regards to youth wellbeing and development but also a better coexistence at school, and how coexistence is related to peer aggression, the hypothesis were:

Mentoring and the school climate will have an effect on peer aggression, so that the poorer the school climate and the less effective the mentoring, the greater the risk of peer aggression perpetration and victimization.

Mentoring will be a moderating factor in the relationship between the school climate (predictor variable) and peer aggression (both perpetration and victimization; criterion variables).

Participants

This study was composed of 441 participants between the ages of 12 and 17 (M = 13.99; SD = 1.33), 259 females (58.73%) and 182 males (41.27%), enrolled in high schools from Cantabria (Spain), 117 (26.7%) in their first year, 106 (23.9%) in their second year, 103 (23.2%) in their third year and 115 (26.2%) in their fourth year.

Sampling Criteria

The high schools were selected by means of a random sampling of two-stage clusters (i.e., random selection of schools and classrooms), stratified by the type of high school (i.e., public and subsidized-private), and the size of municipalities (i.e., rural, intermediate and urban). In accordance with the established randomness and stratification criteria, the sample was representative with a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of 5% for a total population of 22,760 high school students (INE, 2020).

Variables and Instruments

Predictor variable

School climate

In order to quantify this variable, the Scale of Climate Perception and School Functioning (students’ version) was used (Oliva et al., 2011). It is an instrument of 30 items with a Likert type response format of 7 points (from 1 = “Completely false” to 7 = “Completely true”). These items are grouped into four subscales: Climate (i.e., degree to which students perceive relationships with peers as good and the school as safe); Links (i.e., the students’ sense of belonging and perceived support from teachers); Clarity of norms and values (i.e., the degree to which the students perceive the limits to be clearly defined in terms of the school’s current policies); and Empowerment and positive opportunities (i.e., the assessment of the resources and facilities of the center and of the range of activities available to students). The scale also provides an overall score relating to the school functioning, which is the one used in this study. In this study the reliability of the overall scale measured by Cronbach’s alpha was .88.

Moderator variable

Mentoring

An ad hoc questionnaire was developed for the evaluation of the most common actions carried out by Spanish teachers as mentors to promote classroom coexistence and positive student development and well-being. Initially, the scale consisted of 20 items drawn from the resilience model proposed by Henderson and Milstein (2003). A content validity analysis was then carried out following the steps proposed by Escobar-Pérez and Cuervo-Martínez (2008), drawing on the judgment of four experts in the field who evaluated the degree of relevance and suitability of each item, detecting deficiencies and suggesting improvements. Within this process, five items were removed because they were deemed redundant, something that was agreed upon by at least three of the four experts. Finally, following the methods of Pérez and Medrano (2010), an exploratory factorial analysis was carried out that led to the selection of 11 items grouped in a one-dimensional factorial structure (KMO = 0.886; Bartlett’s Test: p = .000), explaining 41.56% of the variance. All items, for which the response format was a 5-point Likert scale (from 1 = “Never” to 5 = “Always”), obtained factorial weights greater than .35 in the only factor observed (Table 1). The Cronbach’s alpha obtained was .86.

Table 1.

Matrix of Rotated Components.

	Factorial weights
Activities have been developed to teach us how to solve interpersonal problems	0.687
Several activities have been developed to help us get along with each other better	0.639
The mentor instructs us on how to prevent problems using dialog (talking)	0.581
We have received information (talks, brochures, etc.) about bullying among peers	0.639
The mentor notices when certain students bother or harass others	0.397
The mentor is alert to interpersonal problems that may arise among us	0.557
The mentor deals adequately with academic problems (lack of skills, lack of interest, doubts, etc.)	0.742
The mentor ask us about how we feel in class	0.720
The mentor is deeply concerned about what we might be worrying about	0.613
The mentor prepares activities to help us to get along better	0.717
The mentor has a vested interest in seeing that we get the best possible education (academic issues)	0.721

Criterion variable

Aggressive behaviors in the school environment

The European Bullying Intervention Project Questionnaire (EBIPQ), adapted for the Spanish population by Ortega-Ruiz et al. (2016), consists of 14 items, half of which evaluate peer aggression victimization, and the other half peer aggression perpetration. These refer to aggressive behaviors such as hitting, insulting, threatening, stealing, using profanity, exclusion or the spreading of rumors. The elements present a response modality that measures the frequency of occurrence of peer aggression (from 0 = “Never” to 4 = “Always”). In this work, the reliability measured by Cronbach’s alpha was .76 for aggression victimization and .79 for aggression perpetration.

Procedure

When contacting the randomly selected high schools, collaboration was requested from the management team and/or the counseling department. Informed consent was obtained from students and their families via written request. An explanation of the purpose and characteristics of the study was included in the form and reiterated when administering the anonymized questionnaires. The students took part voluntarily and could decline to participate at any time with the same guarantee of confidentiality. Finally, they were provided with forms so that they could contact the research team with questions, suggestions, etc. regarding the study. Accordingly, approval was previously obtained from the University’s Ethics Committee to implement these procedures.

Data Analysis

Descriptive analyses were carried out to explore the analyzed variables. The following inferential analyses were also performed: Cronbach’s alpha to study instrument reliability, and correlations to identify the existence of significant relationships between variables; furthermore, in order to study the possible differences between the variables, univariate analyses of two-factor variance (ANOVA) were carried out for each of the dimensions analyzed using Wilks’s Lambda F for the interpretation of the model’s significance, and partial ŋ² to determine the magnitude of its effect. Finally, to examine the influence of a school climate on the emergence of peer aggression as a function of the possible moderation of mentoring, moderation and regression hypotheses were analyzed using the PROCESS Macro Model 1 (Hayes & Little, 2018) in SPSS v.25 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA); to estimate conditional effects, 95% confidence intervals were calculated based on 5,000 bootstrap samples. Changes in R² were also taken into account for the model as a measure of variance accounted for by interactions, and the standard error estimator consisting of heteroscedasticity HC3 was used to run the regression model (Davidson & MacKinnon, 1993). According to this model, the moderating variable (school-based mentoring) was automatically separated into three subcategories (low, medium, and high); as it is presumed to be the variable that modulates the relationship between a school climate and peer aggression.

Results

School Climate, School-Based Mentoring, and Peer Aggression

In this section, information relating to the frequency of some situations is described, in view of the selected measures, through an item level analysis. In relation to school-based mentoring, students stated that they feel it is directed primarily at addressing academic issues (50.9%). Thus, although they perceive that the mentor has an interest in improving relationships among them (56%), they do not think that much emphasis is placed on how they feel in class (36.5%), or on what might be worrying them (34.9%).

With respect to peer aggression, 78.4% indicated having suffered, with at least a low frequency (i.e., once or twice during the last academic year), aggressive behaviors in the school setting. Similarly, 55.7% admitted to having perpetrated aggression with at least the same frequency. Furthermore, the most common form of peer aggression was verbal abuse, both suffered (54.8%) and perpetrated (37.4%).

Finally, Pearson’s correlations show that peer aggression, both victimization and perpetration, had significant negative correlations with the school climate. Aggression perpetration also had a significant negative correlation with mentoring, and the school climate had a significant positive correlation with mentoring. Furthermore, the analysis regarding the differences between males and females reflects statistically significant disparities only with respect to aggression perpetration, being greater in the case of males (Table 2).

Table 2.

Correlations, Means, Standard Deviations and Gender Differences.

		Age	School climate	Mentoring	Suffered aggr.	Perpetrated aggr.
School climate			1	0.455**	−.293**	−.220**
Mentoring				1	−.077	−.099*
Suffered aggression					1	0.524**
Perpetrated aggression						1
M	Male	13.95	2.50	2.30	1.54	1.33**
M	Female	14.03	2.52	2.31	1.48	1.19
SD	Male	1.30	0.37	0.39	0.59	0.56
SD	Female	1.30	0.35	0.41	0.50	0.27

p < .05. **p < .01.

The Role of School-Based Mentoring in the Relationship Between School Climate and Peer Aggression

When considering the effect of school-based mentoring, the results of the variance analysis for a school climate and aggression show that in the case of peer aggression perpetration, mentoring (F1,36 = 1.85; p < .01; ŋ² = 0.289) did in fact make a difference. That is, the poorer the school climate and the less effective the mentoring, the greater the risk of perpetration. In relation to peer aggression victimization, both the school climate (F1,52 = 2.30; p < .001; ŋ² = 0.425) and mentoring (F1,36 = 1.81, p < .01; ŋ² = 0.287) indicated significant effects; thus, a poorer school climate and a lower perception of mentoring represented a greater risk of victimization. These results support hypothesis 1.

After analyzing the moderating effect of school-based mentoring in predicting peer aggression with the school climate as a predictor, it was found that mentoring had a greater moderating effect on peer aggression victimization than on peer aggression perpetration (Table 3). With regard to perpetration, mentoring had a trend effect as a moderator of the relationship between the school climate and peer aggression, though it was not significant (R² = .010, F1,434 = 3.431, p = .064). However, with respect to victimization, a significant effect of the interaction between the school climate and mentoring was observed, indicating that a school climate had a differentiated influence on the occurrence of peer aggression according to the perception of the implementation of school-base mentoring (R² = 0.021, F1,431 = 8.103, p < .01), identifying that a low degree of mentoring had a greater effect on higher levels of victimization and that this moderating effect explained 11.1% of the variance. The school climate was therefore related to less victimization when the mentoring was perceived to be more advanced, especially among those who believed that school-based mentoring occurred with a medium or high frequency. Hypothesis 2 was partially supported by our results.

Table 3.

Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Aggression (Suffered and Perpetrated) and the Conditional Effects of the Predictor (School Climate) on the Values of the Moderator (Mentoring).

	Perpetrated
	B	SE	t	95% CI
Conditional effects
Mentoring	0.722	0.424	1.698	[−0.113, 1.556]
School climate	0.380	0.338	1.122	[−0.285, 1.044]
Interaction models
School climate × Mentoring	−0.286	0.154	−1.852	[−0.589, 0.017]
R ²	0.010
	Suffered
	B	SE	t	95% CI
Conditional effects of the predictor variable (school climate) on the moderating variable (mentoring)
Low frequency mentoring	−0.167	0.075	−2.200*	[−0.316, −0.017]
Medium frequency mentoring	−0.280	0.071	−3.950***	[−0.420, −0.141]
High frequency mentoring	−0.394	0.108	−3.623***	[−0.607, −0.180]
Conditional effects
Mentoring	1.498	0.527	2.840**	[0.461, 2.534]
School climate	0.721	0.430	1.676**	[−0.124, 1.568]
Interaction models
School climate × Mentoring	−.556	0.195	−2.846**	[−0.940, −0.172]
R ²	0.211***
Conditional effects of the predictor variable (school climate) on the moderating variable (mentoring)
Low frequency mentoring	−0.343	0.102	−3.342***	[−0.544, −0.141]
Medium frequency mentoring	−0.563	0.096	−5.848***	[−0.753, −0.374]
High frequency mentoring	−0.784	0.141	−5.536***	[−1.063, −0.506]

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Discussion

This study sought, on the one hand, to analyze the perception of a school climate, school-based mentoring, and the existence of peer aggression (both perpetration and victimization) among Spanish secondary school students; and, on the other hand, it was aimed at exploring the possible moderating effect of mentoring by teachers with respect to the association between a school climate and peer aggression. In relation to the perceptions, it could be stated that the school climate was generally perceived in a positive way; that school-based mentoring seemed to focus more on academic issues and less on the students’ social-emotional issues (e.g., coexistence at school, personal growth, etc.); and that peer aggression was found to be prevalent in the high schools studied.

Concerning the relationships between the variables analyzed, if we consider peer aggression perpetration, it could be concluded that the poorer the school climate, the greater the risk of perpetration. Likewise, when peer aggression victimization was examined, a more inadequate school climate and more negative perception of activities related to school-based mentoring predicted greater degrees of victimization.

Peer aggression in schools is a matter of growing concern. At present, principals and teachers in Spanish schools are very aware of the importance of having a good school climate, since it contributes not only to reducing conflict in schools, but also aggression among peers (Lázaro-Visa et al., 2019; López-Castedo et al., 2018). Not surprisingly, a positive school climate has been identified as an important protective factor against aggressive behavior (Cohen & Freiberg, 2013; Monroy-Castillo et al., 2017).

Educational endeavors by means of emotional competence development can help students to improve their well-being and to confront challenges and difficulties in their lives (Vila et al., 2021). Tinto (1993) found that both academic and social integration are determinants of college students’ decisions to stay in school or to drop out. School-based mentoring is a good approach to promote a more comprehensive education (Bisquerra, 2012). This is especially true when mentoring focuses more on personal and social development and on addressing transversal skills, and less on academic issues. According to a meta-analysis, fostering students’ social-emotional resources contributes to enhancing both their academic performance and their personal growth (Durlak et al., 2011). School-based mentoring can therefore provide valuable support to the adolescent student’s life project: the classroom is a community where support is not only provided by teachers, but also by peers (Durán, 2009). To this end, creating and maintaining a positive school climate is essential, as well as developing a close relationship based on trust between mentors and mentee (Lyons & McQuillin, 2019; Serrano, 2009).

When analyzing the moderating effect of school-based mentoring with respect to peer aggression victimization, a significant effect of the interaction between a school climate and mentoring was observed, indicating that the school climate had a differentiated influence on the occurrence of peer aggression according to the perception of the implementation of school-based mentoring, revealing that the perception of a lower degree of mentoring led to higher levels of perceived victimization. However, with regard to peer aggression perpetration, although a trend effect was observed as a moderator of the relationship between the school climate and peer aggression, the result was not significant; thus, the perception of poor mentoring had an insignificant effect on the risk of increase in the presence of aggression perpetration, which highlights the complex nature of the problem of peer aggression (Bradshaw, 2015) and the weakness of the predictor measured.

Regarding these conclusions, school-based mentoring was found to be a fundamental component of the educational process at various educational levels insofar as it favored the all-round development of students and contributed to the prevention of aggressive behavior and other behavioral problems (Cohen & Freiberg, 2013), particularly throughout adolescence (McQuillin et al., 2020; Vélaz-de-Medrano-Ureta et al., 2018). Therefore, school-based mentoring developed by teachers, which is inherent to the role of educators, is key in processes of educational transformation, in which all educational agents must be involved, including families. Previous studies have shown that teachers consider school-based mentoring to be of great value in fostering a more positive environment (Álvarez González, 2017; Valdés-Cuervo et al., 2018) at both the school and classroom levels (Serrano, 2009); in addition, poor classroom management and weak teacher support for students have been associated with the prevalence of bullying (Bradshaw, 2015).

Limitations

Despite the valuable results of this work, limitations should nevertheless be noted. Among them is the cross-sectional nature of the study, insofar as the relationships found between the variables, in order to explain precisely how they originated and evolved, cannot be explored over time. Similarly, no causal relationship can be established between them. In addition, the assessment of mentoring in schools was carried out using a scale that had to be designed ad hoc, as no standardized instrument existed that met the objectives of this work. Finally, without seeking to be exhaustive, this work was carried out with a sample from one specific region (Cantabria, Spain), and therefore any generalization of the conclusions drawn with respect to other areas should be made with caution.

Suggestions for Future Research

The findings of our study highlight possible avenues for future research. Concretely, related to the results concerning the relationship between a school climate and peer aggression, if the association is confirmed, it would be necessary to go further into the most relevant aspects of a school climate for aggression and victimization.

Moreover, this work shows that mentoring has a significative effect on victimization prevention but not on perpetration. Perhaps mentoring does not represent the same figure of authority for the victims as for the aggressors, but this point should be studied in future research.

Finally, a better conceptualization of school-based mentoring functions and skills in order to prevent peer aggression and to promote a healthier school environment is needed. This would help to identify what happens, what elements are focused on, when students have a negative perspective of mentoring.

Relevance to the Practice of School Psychology

The findings of this research lead to the consideration of possible educational actions of interest. Thus, school mentoring should be promoted not only to contribute to the integration of academic knowledge and other knowledge that comes from other contexts in which adolescents also participate (e.g., family, peers, etc.), but also to provide continuity to school and out-of-school experiences, seeking positive adolescent development. To this end, it is necessary to highlight the importance of school mentoring and the role of teachers in promoting student well-being, especially in Secondary Education, when adolescents acquire greater autonomy but still need adult supervision and support (Martínez & Beltrán, 2011). In many schools, mentors are adults from the community who meet weekly with their assigned young people on school premises (Karcher, 2008), although in Spain it is usually the school’s teaching staff. On the part of mentors, it might be useful for them to provide adolescents with support that also contributes to their personal development through goal setting; goal setting that underpins holistic development can give adolescents a sense of control over the issues they face on a daily basis, as well as help to strengthen personal relationships of school mentoring (Schenk et al., 2021). Moreover, given that school-based mentoring is one of a teacher’s responsibilities in Spain, it is essential that training programs be organized to improve upon its effectiveness. Consistent evidence suggests that adolescents’ aggression behaviors can be significantly reduced by well-planned interventions (Raposa et al., 2019; Valdés-Cuervo et al., 2018). In the area of training, emphasis has been placed on the need for interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary postgraduate studies, together with continuous professional development as a way to enhance the competencies of school-based professionals (Nastasi, 1998). In addition to teachers, energetic, compassionate, and dedicated individuals from all fields of expertise and levels must be selected as mentors. Additionally, the chance of success is greater if the intervention incorporates a whole-school approach involving multiple disciplines and the whole school community. Finally, through running mentorship training programs, providing youth with emotional and practical support and including the whole school community, the possibilities of reducing peer aggressions at school will increase and the school climate will be also better.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Research funded by the Vicerrectorado de Investigación y Transferencia de Conocimiento from the Universidad de Cantabria (Ref. 11.VU04.64662) and the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union (Ref. 2020-1-UK01-KA204-078843).

ORCID iDs

Noelia Fernández-Rouco

Andrés A. Fernández-Fuertes

Author Biographies

Noelia Fernández-Rouco is an Associate Professor and Lecturer in Developmental Psychology and Education. She teaches on learning and developmental psychology to teachers at the Department of Education (University of Cantabria, Spain). She is the author of national and international scientific publications and projects on well-being, sexuality, and the analysis of social exclusion processes since childhood.

Andrés A. Fernández-Fuertes has a degree in psychology and a PhD in sexuality and interpersonal relationships. He is currently an associate professor of child and adolescent learning and development in the Department of Education (Universidad de Cantabria, Spain). His main research topics are dating violence, bullying, and sex education.

Marta García-Lastra, Ph.D. (2004), University of Deusto (Spain), is Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Cantabria (Spain). Her main area of research focuses on the analysis of gender inequalities in society, especially at school. She has published several articles and books about this subject.

Celia España-Chico has a degree in Primary Education and a PhD in Equity and Innovation in Education (University of Cantabria, Spain). She is currently developing her work in university research and teaching. Her main lines of research are gender and sexual diversity, sex education, and child well-being.

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