Family and school environments play an integral role in the socialization and overall growth of children. However, household and school-related factors may lead to aggressive and violent behaviors, such as bullying among young people. Considering the critical role of these environments in the socialization process, children may learn and imitate those negative social interactions. Although individual factors promote bullying perpetration, family and social environments also expose minors to negative social interactions, encouraging such behavior. This research paper examines risk factors of bullying among school goers.
Individual variables, particularly empathy, are major risk factors of aggressive behaviors among young people. Del Rey et al. (2016) examined 564 high school students drawn from several coeducational institutions in Greece and Spain to establish whether empathy predicts the risk of bullying. Structured questionnaires and equation modeling were employed to gather and analyze data, respectively.
The results of the investigation revealed participants who were less empathetic were more likely to be aggressive towards others. Girls and older students who were more empathetic exhibited a low risk of engagement in aggressive behaviors compared to male and younger students. Another survey of 9,512 German students confirmed these findings, which explored the prevalence and correlations of cyberbullying perpetration (Bergmann & Baier, 2018).
Results of multilevel regression analyses revealed that 2.4% and 0.4% of the ninth-grade students had harassed someone on the Internet psychologically or sexually, respectively (Bergmann & Baier, 2018). Participants with low empathy scores, a history of victimization, and frequent exposure to violent media content exhibited a higher likelihood of perpetuating this behavior. This empirical evidence confirms the idea that empathy has a negative influence of aggression perpetration.
The school environment is one of the primary arenas where children and young people learn aggressive behaviors. Mucherah et al. (2018) examined how the school climate and teachers’ sanctions against bullying relate to the risk of becoming a victim or perpetrator of bullying. 2,273 students from three public schools in Kenya filled a structured questionnaire. The results of their structural model analyses showed a direct relationship between a positive school climate and the risk of bullying and being bullied (Mucherah et al., 2018). Furthermore, the researchers found that teachers’ sanctions against aggressive behavior within the school environment reduced the risk of aggression perpetration and victimization. This empirical study contradicts previous research evidence showing that students in a boys’ school exhibited a lower risk of being bullied than their peers in girls and mixed schools. It demonstrates that teachers can prevent violent behaviors among students through negative sanctions.
Parents have a significant influence on the risk of their children to perpetrate bullying online. Ho et al. (2017) explored how attitude, norms, and parental involvement affect the likelihood of becoming a bully on social media. A multi-stage cluster sampling technique was utilized to select a sample of 1,424 primary and secondary school students in Singapore. The survey results showed that “revealed that attitude, subjective norms, and the two parental mediations – active and restrictive mediation – were negatively associated with cyberbullying perpetration on social media” (Del Rey et al., 2016, p. 74). Attitude and subjective norms were also found to discourage aggressive patterns on the social networking platforms, while age moderated the above relationships.
In conclusion, bullying (both traditional and Internet-based) among children and young people is a severe public health concern across the globe today. Children and adolescents usually look upon the immediate family and other people in different social environments as they try to develop an identity and establish their space in society. However, some dysfunctional environments expose children to negative experiences, which exacerbate the risk of engaging in aggressive behaviors, such as bullying. This study’s findings indicate that besides individual factors, bullying perpetration prevention measures should also target family and school-specific variables to promote healthy child and family development.
References
Bergmann, M. C., & Baier, D. (2018). Prevalence and correlates of cyberbullying perpetration. Findings from a German representative student survey. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(2), 274. Web.
Del Rey, R., Lazuras, L., Casas, J. A., Barkoukis, V., Ortega-Ruiz, R., & Tsorbatzoudis, H. (2016). Does empathy predict (cyber) bullying perpetration, and how do age, gender and nationality affect this relationship?Learning and Individual Differences, 45, 275-281. Web.
Ho, S. S., Chen, L., & Ng, A. P. (2017). Comparing cyberbullying perpetration on social media between primary and secondary school students. Computers & Education, 109, 74-84. Web.
Mucherah, W., Finch, H., White, T., & Thomas, K. (2018). The relationship of school climate, teacher defending and friends on students’ perceptions of bullying in high school. Journal of Adolescence, 62, 128-139. Web.