Teachers’ responses to bullying: Unravelling their consequences and antecedents. Introduction to the special issue

Patterns of teachers' responses to school bullying and their associations with training, self-efficacy, and age: A moderated mediation model

Bullying remains a pervasive issue in educational settings worldwide. This study examined the effect of teacher training and self-efficacy on teachers' responses to school bullying with the moderating effect of age. Drawing on data from 585 Taiwanese primary and secondary school teachers, the study revealed six distinct response patterns to bullying among Taiwanese teachers. The results underscore the critical role of self-efficacy in enabling proactive responses to bullying, highlighting that training programs that boost teachers' self-efficacy can be effective across different age groups. Furthermore, the research points to the necessity of differentiated training approaches that consider teachers' age to enhance responses of mediating involvers. This study contributes to the broader discourse on bullying prevention, emphasizing the importance of teacher training and the need for further research into the nuanced relationships between teacher characteristics, self-efficacy, and intervention strategies in diverse cultural settings.

Nursing faculty members' response to bullying in the eyes of their students: A pilot study in Pangasinan

BACKGROUND

Bullying is a pervasive issue that can occur in any setting, including among nursing students and within the nursing profession. Faculty members have a vital role in resolving bullying.

OBJECTIVES

To examine the nursing faculty members' responses to incidents of bullying within two nursing institutions in Pangasinan.

DESIGN

Descriptive- comparative design.

SETTINGS

Two Colleges of Nursing in a city in Pangasinan, Philippines.

PARTICIPANTS

Nursing students from first to fourth year BS Nursing students.

METHODS

An online survey was the main tool in this study, Lynch formula was utilized to calculate the sample size. There are 458 nursing students who participated in this study. Frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, one-way ANOVA, and t-test were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS

It was revealed that faculty members sometimes address bullying by group discussion (M = 3.26, SD = 1.27), and they almost never utilized non-intervention in bullying (M = 2.33, SD = 0.85). There is a variation in terms of group discussion with a one-way ANOVA score of F (2, 455) = 3.22, p = 0.04, when faculty members are grouped according to their degrees. Regarding the difference between the faculty members' responses to bullying when grouped according to gender, there is a significant difference between male and female for mediation (t(457) = 2.10, p = 0.04), group discussion (t(457) = 2.79, p = 0.01), victim support (t(457) = 2.54, p = 0.01), and disciplinary methods (t(457) = 2.66, p = 0.01).

CONCLUSION

The study emphasizes the complex nature of tackling bullying among nursing students. It highlights the efficacy of several solutions used by faculty members, such as group discussions, mediation, victim assistance, and disciplinary measures. The findings indicate that a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics involved in addressing bullying is necessary. This understanding highlights the significance of a cooperative and compassionate strategy that includes all individuals involved in the educational setting. It is clear that a standardized approach may not be enough, and customized techniques that take into account the particular circumstances and requirements of the persons involved are essential.

Witnessing family violence and adolescent cyberbullying perpetration: A longitudinal moderated mediation model involving anger dysregulation and teacher support

BACKGROUND

Family violence has been shown to be associated with traditional adolescent bullying perpetration. However, few studies have considered the association between witnessing family violence and adolescent bullying perpetration in cyberspace.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to reveal the mechanism explaining the association between witnessing family violence and adolescent cyberbullying perpetration by testing the mediating effect of anger dysregulation and the moderating effect of teacher support.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Participants were 751 Chinese adolescents (Mage at Time 1 = 13.25) who completed the measures of witnessing family violence, anger dysregulation, cyberbullying perpetration, and teacher support at three time points over the year.

METHODS

Structural equation modeling was used to assess the direct and indirect effects of witnessing family violence on adolescent cyberbullying perpetration through anger dysregulation as a mediator and perceived teacher support as a moderator.

RESULTS

The results showed that witnessing family violence at baseline positively predicted adolescent cyberbullying perpetration at T3, and anger dysregulation at T2 partially mediated this association. The positive relation between witnessing family violence and later anger dysregulation was stronger for adolescents who perceived higher levels of teacher support.

CONCLUSIONS

Witnessing family violence could increase the risk for adolescent cyberbullying perpetration, with anger dysregulation mediating this association. The protective effect of perceived teacher support weakens as the levels of witnessing family violence increase. These findings offer insight into the connection between witnessing family violence and adolescent bullying perpetration in the digital age, emphasizing the importance of promoting programs to prevent intrafamilial violence.

Supporting teachers to actively respond to bullying and to build positive relationships with their students: effects of the T-SUPPORT training

Despite the central role that teachers can have in preventing and reducing bullying, they often feel insecure about how to deal with bullying. This study evaluated a short teacher training - called the Teachers SUPporting POsitive RelaTionships (T-SUPPORT) training - that aims to reduce bullying by supporting teachers in building positive teacher-student relationships and in actively dealing with bullying. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether the T-SUPPORT training resulted in higher quality teacher-student relationships, and more active and less passive responses to bullying incidents, and whether these improvements in turn resulted in lower levels of bullying victimization. In a Randomized Controlled Trial 10 Belgian primary schools were randomly assigned to an intervention or control condition. The Grades 4-6 teachers of the five schools in the intervention condition received the three-session school-based training; control teachers received no intervention. Grade 4-6 students (N = 964; 55 classrooms) in these schools completed questionnaires at pre- and post-test. In contrast to the hypotheses, results of the two-level linear mixed model analyses revealed no significant effect of the training on teacher-student relationship quality, teachers' responses to bullying and bullying victimization. Yet, higher quality teacher-student relationships and more active teacher responses to bullying were significantly associated with less bullying victimization, whereas more passive responses were linked with more victimization. The latter findings are in line with theorizing and research on the role that teachers can play in reducing bullying.

Teachers' bullying-related cognitions as predictors of their responses to bullying among students

BACKGROUND

Teachers may play a key role in reducing bullying by responding to incidents among students. Inspired by the theory of planned behaviour, several studies have investigated teachers' bullying-related cognitions as predictors of their responses to bullying.

AIMS

This study investigated whether six teachers' bullying-related cognitions (i.e., perceived seriousness, empathy, attitudes, self-efficacy and attribution of the bullying) predicted five student-perceived teachers' responses (i.e., Non-Intervention, Disciplinary Methods, Victim Support, Mediation and Group Discussion) over time. By examining this objective, more insight into student perceptions of teachers' responses to bullying could also be provided.

SAMPLE

In total, 999 upper elementary school students (M _age  = 10.61 at Wave 1, SD _age  = .90; 53.6% girls) and their 59 teachers (M _age  = 39.61 at W1, SD _age  = 11.60; 79.7% female) participated.

METHODS

A bullying questionnaire was administered in three waves to assess students' perceptions of the teachers' responses. Teachers reported bullying-related cognitions in the first wave. Multilevel analyses were used to investigate the relative contribution of the predictors on the teachers' responses over time.

RESULTS

None of the teachers' bullying-related cognitions significantly predicted the teachers' specific responses.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that teachers' bullying-related cognitions are not reflected in their responses to bullying as perceived by students. Moreover, the findings indicate that students' perceptions of teachers' responses vary widely within classrooms and over time. Student- and teacher-reported teachers' responses might differ, and these possible differences should be taken into account.

Teachers Can Make a Difference in Bullying: Effects of Teacher Interventions on Students' Adoption of Bully, Victim, Bully-Victim or Defender Roles across Time

School bullying is a serious problem worldwide, but little is known about how teacher interventions influence the adoption of bullying-related student roles. This study surveyed 750 early adolescents (50.5% female; average age: 12.9 years, SD = 0.4) from 39 classrooms in two waves, six months apart. Peer ratings of classmates were used to categorize students to five different bullying-related roles (criterion: >1 SD): bully, victim, bully-victim, defender, and non-participant. Student ratings of teachers were used to obtain class-level measures of teacher interventions: non-intervention, disciplinary sanctions, group discussion, and mediation/victim support. Controlling for student- and class-level background variables, two multilevel multinomial logistic regression analyses were computed to predict students’ bullying-related roles at wave 2. In the static model, predictors were teacher interventions at wave 1, and in the dynamic model, predictors were teacher intervention changes across time. The static model showed that disciplinary sanctions reduced the likelihood of being a bully or victim, and group discussion raised the likelihood of being a defender. Mediation/victim support raised the likelihood of being a bully. The dynamic model complemented these results by indicating that increases in group discussion across time raised the likelihood of being a defender, whereas increases in non-intervention across time raised the likelihood of being a victim and reduced the likelihood of being a defender. These results show that teacher interventions have distinct effects on students’ adoption of bullying-related roles and could help to better target intervention strategies. The findings carry practical implications for the professional training of prospective and current teachers.

Suicidal Ideation among Adolescents: A Case of Bullying Victimization and Emotional Intelligence

This paper attempted to examine suicidal ideation among adolescents in terms of bullying victimization and emotional intelligence. It had been observed that adolescents have to face the challenge of suicidal ideation through bullying and reduce it through emotional intelligence. A sample of 1017 adolescents was sampled from public sector primary schools in the district of Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan to conduct the cross-sectional survey. For this study, the scale of bullying victimization (Illinois Bullying Scale by Espelage & Holt, 2001), emotional intelligence (Emotional Intelligence Scale for Children & Adolescents by Batool & Hayat, 2018) and suicidal ideation (Suicidal Ideation Attribution Scale by Van Spijker, 2014) had been used to measure the responses of the students. The study findings pointed out that emotional intelligence was a significant negative predictor of suicidal ideation. Similarly, the analysis showed that bullying victimization was a significant predictor of suicidal ideation among adolescents.

Teachers' Responses to Bullying Questionnaire: A Validation Study in Two Educational Contexts

Given the high prevalence and dramatic impact of being bullied at school, it is crucial to get more insight into how teachers can reduce bullying. So far, few instruments have measured elementary teachers' responses to bullying. This study investigated the validity of the student-reported Teachers' Responses to Bullying Questionnaire. The factor structure and measurement invariance were tested across two educational contexts among fourth and fifth grade students from Italy (n = 235) and Belgium (n = 667). Furthermore, associations between student-perceived teachers' responses and students' bullying behavior were examined. Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the predicted five-factor structure, distinguishing Non-Intervention, Disciplinary Methods, Group Discussion, Mediation, and Victim Support. A partial factor means invariance model was found, allowing for valid comparisons between the Italian and Belgian educational contexts. Significant associations were found between self-reported, but not peer-nominated, bullying behavior and most student-perceived teachers' responses.