The impact of bullying on students’ learning in Latin America: A matching approach for 15 countries

Abstract

We examine the impact of bullying on learning and non-cognitive outcomes for sixth grade students in 15 Latin America countries using data from the Third Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study (TERCE) learning survey. We apply OLS and propensity score matching to attenuate the impact of confounding factors. Matching results show that students being bullied achieve between 9.6 and 18.4 points less in math than their non-bullied peers whilst in reading between 5.8 and 19.4 lower scores, a 0.07-0.22 reduction in the standard deviation of test scores. Thus, substantial learning gains could be accomplished by anti-bullying policies in the region.