Why Do Some Children Bully at School?

Abstract

The tendency for school children to bully others was conceived as lying along a continuum of frequency, ranging from zero to very high. To examine social factors that may influence the position of individual students on this continuum, questionnaires were administered to Australian school children attending state coeducational schools: primary (N = 200) and secondary (N = 200). They completed measures to assess: (i) frequency of engaging in bullying others; (ii) attitudes towards victims of bullying and (iii) the extent to which they believed specified others expected them to support victims of bullying. Those specified included mother, father, friends and teachers. Multiple regression analyses indicated that negative attitudes to victims and the perceived expectations of friends were associated with self-reported bullying behaviour (p < 0.001); in addition, boys were more likely to report bullying others than girls (p < 0.01). Reporting bullying others was related to perceived expectations of parents for girls only; for neither sex was there evidence that the perceived expectations of teachers influenced reported bullying behaviour. The attitudes students have developed towards victims and the views of their peers may be critical. Anti-bullying programs promoting empathic attitudes to victims and ways of mobilizing peer influence to counter bullying are supported.