The relationship among individual characteristics of pupils, parental influences and bullying behaviour in primary and secondary age children

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between bullying behaviour, on one hand, and individual characteristics and parenting styles among Year 5 and Year 6 primary school pupils and Form 1 and Form 2 secondary school students on the other. Individual characteristics such as pro-social behaviour, self-esteem and self-efficacy in terms of self confidence and school achievement as well as parenting styles such as punitive parenting, authoritarian opposed to authoritative parenting, parental agreement and parental support were investigated. The role of pupils' sex, age and ability was also investigated. Data were collected by an anonymous group-administered questionnaire. 209 boys and 249 girls participated in the study during the third term of the scholastic year 1999/2000. Results show that 42.1% are victims, 58.5% are bullies and 30.8% are bully/victims. Boys are more involved in bullying than girls in the three mentioned roles. Bullies and bully/victims tend to be low-ability pupils. Bullies and victims are most frequent among Year 5 and Year 6 Primary school students. Bully/victims are also most frequent in Year 6. Furthermore, results show that bully/victims have low pro-social behaviour, punitive parents who agree less, high authoritarian and low supportive parents. Of the three roles, only bullies have the lowest self-esteem and lowest school achievement. Also, only victims have parents who are most authoritarian of all.