title: The Relationship Among School Safety, School Liking, and Students' Self-Esteem: Based on a Multilevel Mediation Model.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Perceptions of school safety have an important effect on students' development. Based on the model of "context-process-outcomes," we examined school safety as a context variable to explore how school safety at the school level affected students' self-esteem.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used hierarchical linear modeling to examine the link between school safety at the school level and students' self-esteem, including school liking as a mediator. The data were from the National Children's Study of China (NCSC), in which 6618 fourth- to fifth-grade students in 79 schools were recruited from 100 counties in 31 provinces in China.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Multilevel mediation analyses showed that the positive relationship between school safety at the school level and self-esteem was partially mediated by school liking, controlling for demographics at both student and school levels. Furthermore, a sex difference existed in the multilevel mediation model. For boys, school liking fully mediated the relationship between school safety at the school level and self-esteem. However, school liking partially mediated the relationship between school safety at the school level and self-esteem among girls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  School safety should receive increasing attention from policymakers because of its impact on students' self-esteem.
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, No. 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100875, China. zhangxh19871206@163.com.
authors.forename: Xinghui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, No. 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100875, China. 1009773645@qq.com.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xuan
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, No. 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100875, China. chenfumei@bnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Fumei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, No. 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100875, China. caibnu@163.com.
authors.forename: Cai
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, No. 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100875, China. luoyuhan@mail.bnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yuhan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, No. 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100875, China. wangyun@bnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002681:China; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012449:Safety / Q000592:standards*; D012574:Schools / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: multilevel mediation model; school liking; school safety; self-esteem