Background/Purpose: The Society for Adolescent Medicine has called for research to explore environmental factors that may play a role in preventing bullying behavior (Eisenberg & Aalsma, 2005). One environmental factor that may be important is establishing a caring classroom climate. By promoting a caring climate students may learn to care for one another and develop empathy for others which could foster prosocial and reduce antisocial behaviors (Noddings, 1992; Olweus, 1993). The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of a caring climate on empathy, social behaviors, and bullying in physical education (PE) classrooms plus to investigate whether empathy mediated the relationships between caring and social behaviors/bullying. Additionally, this study sought to provide insight into ways that physical educators develop caring classrooms.
Method: Middle school PE students (N=528) completed self-report measures assessing a caring climate, empathy, social behaviors, and bullying behavior. Additionally, six teachers were interviewed regarding how they create a caring environment.
Analysis/Results: Following procedures outline by Holmbeck (1997) structural equation modeling was used to test the mediation effect. A partial mediation model was supported, Χ2(121)=229.61, TLI=.97, CFI=.98, RMSEA=.05, SRMR=.04. A caring climate positively predicted prosocial behavior and cognitive empathy and negatively predicted bullying and antisocial behavior. Cognitive empathy only mediated the relationship between caring and prosocial behavior.
Conclusions: Collective findings suggest that creating a caring climate is one tool that PE teachers can use to promote positive behavior. Methods identified by physical educators to develop this caring climate will be discussed.