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Preservice Teachers’ Bullying Attitudes and Intervention Likelihood: Differences by Form of Bullying

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Abstract

Previous research assessing differences in teachers’ perceptions of bullying (e.g., seriousness, empathy, intervention likelihood) have focused primarily on physical, relational, verbal, and cyberbullying forms. Equally important is understanding views of social bullying (e.g., spreading rumors) given the frequency at which youth experience these social attacks. To add to our knowledge about perceptions of this form of bullying, the current study adding social bullying vignettes to the routinely utilized Bullying Attitudes Questionnaire (Craig et al., 2000; Yoon & Kerber, 2003). Preservice teachers (n = 222, 86.5% female, 80.2% White) from a large public university in the southeastern USA participated in the study. Analyses compared differences in perceptions based on the forms of bullying and examined whether patterns differed depending on several key demographic (e.g., gender, prior victimization experience) and training background variables (e.g., practicum experience, year of study). The results showed that preservice teachers viewed physical and cyberbullying as the most serious forms of bullying. Social bullying was perceived to be the least serious form. Significant interaction effects between form of bullying and gender were also found. Compared to male preservice teachers, females were more empathetic toward victims of relational, cyber, and social forms of bullying, more confident to deal with verbal and social forms of bullying, and more likely to intervene in all forms except physical. Additional results with training background variables are presented, and implications for teacher interventions and teacher training are discussed.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from MD upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was supported by Social Sciences Grant #15240–19-50400 from the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, University of South Carolina.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Studies, College of Education, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    Molly Dawes & Matthew J. Irvin

  2. Child Development Research Center, College of Education, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    Angela Starrett & Matthew J. Irvin

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  1. Molly Dawes
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Contributions

MD developed the social bullying vignettes, collected data, conducted data analyses, and wrote the manuscript. AS assisted in the development of the social bullying vignettes and modification to other vignettes and assisted in manuscript writing. MI assisted in the development of the social bullying vignettes and modification to other vignettes and assisted in manuscript writing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Molly Dawes.

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Informed consent was obtained for all participants in the study.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Appendices

Appendix

Participants were shown the following definition before completing the BAQ:

For the purposes of the remaining questions in this questionnaire, we define bullying as follows:

Bullying is defined as an unwanted, aggressive behavior by another youth or group of youth that:

  1. 1.

    Is an attack or intentionally causes harm

  2. 2.

    Is done in a physical or psychological way

  3. 3.

    Repeatedly (e.g., more than one physical attack, multiple rumors, something shared with a lot of people over technology)

  4. 4.

    Involves an observed or perceived power imbalance such as from the stronger towards the weaker

It is not bullying when two youth are teasing each other in a playful, joking manner.

Bullying can take on many different forms such as:

  • Physical bullying – hitting, kicking, punching, pushing someone

  • Relational bullying – excluding or ignoring another person on purpose

  • Social bullying – spreading rumors or gossiping about someone behind their back

  • Verbal bullying – name calling, or teasing in hurtful way

  • Cyber – bullying using technology such as with a phone or a computer, over the internet

Vignettes

Physical Bullying

  1. 1.

    A student bought in new phone to school that was a birthday gift. Another bigger child goes over and smacks the student, demanding the phone. The student refuses at first, but eventually gives in. You’ve seen the same thing happen between these students before.

  2. 2.

    You assigned the students in your class to work in groups of 4 to do a project. While they are getting in their groups, you see one student push a smaller student with enough force that the student falls to the ground. The push was clearly intentional and not provoked. The student who fell looks upset. You’ve seen the same student push this other student before.

Relational Bullying

  1. 1.

    As students are sitting down waiting for class to start, you overhear one student who is surrounded by their friends say to another student, “You can’t sit here, it’s saved” even though every other student already has a seat. The student looks around anxiously for another seat. This is not the first time you have heard this remark made to this student.

  2. 2.

    You allow students in your class to have a little free time because they’ve worked so hard today. You witness a student standing among friends say to another student, “Go away, we don’t want you to play with us.” The student goes and plays alone for the remaining time clearly upset. This is not the first time this student has had to play by themselves.

Verbal Bullying

  1. 1.

    At the writing center, you hear a student sitting with a big group of friends chant to another student, “Teacher’s pet, brown-nose, suck-up, kiss-ass.” The student tries to ignore the remarks but sulks at their desk. You saw this same thing happen the other day.

  2. 2.

    Your class is getting ready to go to lunch and the students are in line at the door. You hear a bigger student making fun of another student, “You look weird. Did you get dressed in the dark?” The student looks embarrassed. This is not the first time you have heard this student making fun of the other one.

Cyberbullying

  1. 1.

    A student shows you a humiliating photo that was posted online of them that a lot of other kids at school have seen. This is not the first time you’ve heard about something being posted about this student.

  2. 2.

    You witness a student look fearful after they check their phone during free time. The student is getting a lot of threatening text messages from unknown numbers. You’ve seen this happen to the student before.

Social Bullying

  1. 1.

    In the hallway, you overhear a group of students talking about another student who doesn’t have as many friends. Later in the day, someone tells the student “Those other kids were talking about you today.” The student looks upset. This is not the first time this has happened.

  2. 2.

    At lunch, you notice several students whispering and laughing about another kid that just walked past. The kid overhears their name but is afraid to go over and confront the other students. You’ve seen students talk about this kid before.

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Dawes, M., Starrett, A. & Irvin, M.J. Preservice Teachers’ Bullying Attitudes and Intervention Likelihood: Differences by Form of Bullying. Int Journal of Bullying Prevention (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42380-022-00153-7

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