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The Fear of Being Bullied on the School Bus: Perceptions, Correlations, and Sex Differences

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Abstract

The goals of this study were to determine whether children who took the bus to school on a regular basis felt safest during the commute to school, in school, or on the commute home from school, and to identify the factors that correlate with fear of being bullied on the bus. A sample of 610 students (296 boys, 313 girls; mean age = 11.25 years, SD = 0.51) was surveyed during the fall semester of their first year of middle school (sixth grade). Students indicated that they felt safer in school than they did on the commute to or from school, which nearly always occurred by bus. Sex differences were investigation and found to be small in number and magnitude. These differences were limited to slightly more girls than boys reporting feeling safer in school, slightly more boys than girls reporting feeling safer on the commute home from school, and a modestly stronger association between bullying victimization and fear of being bullied on the school bus in boys than in girls, although the effect was significant in both sexes. There were no significant differences between boys and girls in their overall level of fear of bullying on the bus. A full sample regression analysis revealed significant correlations between the risk factors of bullying victimization and depression, and a child’s fear of being bullied on the bus, suggesting that such fears are related to past victimization and current feelings of sadness, loneliness, and reduced energy.

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Notes

  1. Discussions with school officials designed to clarify the significant difference in feelings of safety between the commute to school and the commute home from school revealed that while nearly all of the students traveled to school on a crowded bus with students who were up to 8 years older than them, a substantial number of older students rode a later bus home because of their involvement in after-school athletic and extra-curricular activities. The sixth grade students who served as participants in the current study were usually not eligible for participation in these after-school activities and so took an earlier and less crowded bus home, with a smaller percentage of older students than were on the buses that took them to school.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the staff and students of J.T. Lambert Middle School in East Stroudsburg, PA, USA, without whom this study would not have been possible.

Funding

Research for the current study was supported by grants from the Kutztown University Foundation and Kutztown University Research Committee to Glenn Walters (PI).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminal Justice, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA, USA

    Glenn D. Walters, Jon Kremser & Lindsey Runell

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  1. Glenn D. Walters
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Correspondence to Glenn D. Walters.

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Walters, G.D., Kremser, J. & Runell, L. The Fear of Being Bullied on the School Bus: Perceptions, Correlations, and Sex Differences. Int Journal of Bullying Prevention 3, 102–113 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42380-020-00066-3

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