School climate and adolescent aggression: A moderated mediation model involving deviant peer affiliation and sensation seeking

•School climate exacted an indirect effect on aggression through deviant peer affiliation.•Sensation seeking moderated the direct association between school climate and aggression.•Sensation seeking moderated the first pathway of the indirect effect.•Higher sensation seeking amplified the risk of negative school climate.

There is a large gap in knowledge of the potential mediators by which school climate is associated with aggression and the potential moderators that exacerbate or attenuate this association. The current study examined the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying the relation. A sample of 1401 adolescents participated in this study and completed anonymous questionnaires. Structural equation models showed that deviant peer affiliation mediated the association between school climate and adolescent aggression. As expected, sensation seeking moderated the direct association between school climate and adolescent aggression; lower-quality school climate was associated with more adolescent aggression under the condition of higher sensation seeking. Additionally, the first pathway of the indirect effect was significantly moderated by sensation seeking; the association between school climate and deviant peer affiliation was particularly stronger for adolescents with higher sensation seeking. The present study contributes to our understanding of key mechanisms underlying the association between school climate and adolescent aggression.