Abstract
The aim of this study was to determine any variances between teacher and student perspectives of bullying's causes. A total of 2,210 students (in grades 5 to 12) and 406 elementary and middle-school teachers in Taiwan voluntarily participated in this study. The data were collected by a self-developed Awareness of Bullying Causes Scale (ABCS) and examined via Rasch Partial Credit Model (PCM) analysis using ConQuest 2.0 and Winsteps 3.7 software. This study showed that the highest-rated bullying causes from students' perspectives were as follows: (1) bullying others for fun, (2) disliking the victims' behaviors, (3) the victims had offended the bullies, and (4) unresolved relational issues between the victims and the bullies. However, from the teachers' perspectives, the main four causes included (1) bullying others for friends, (2) disliking the victims' behaviors, (3) unsociable victims do not fit in with classes and/or groups well, and (4) the victims had offended the bullies. These findings have several implications. Firstly, for those who bully others for fun, teachers should enhance the definition of school bullying and ensure that students understand body boundaries. Second, when relational issues cause bullying, teachers should intervene and determine the reasons for the bullying. They should also assist not only victims but bullies to improve their interpersonal relationship skills, including teaching bullies how to get along with peers that they dislike and how to deal with conflicts without violence. They should tutor victims on proper hygienic habits, the proper ways to interact with others, etc.
Author Information
Wei-Qi Chen, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan
Li-Ming Chen, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan
Paper Information
Conference: ACE2017
Stream: Primary & Secondary Education
This paper is part of the ACE2017 Conference Proceedings (View)
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