Sticks and Stones Parental Beliefs about Bullying

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Barton, Michelle

Keywords

Bullying, Parents, School

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

This study investigated parental beliefs about relational and physical bullying. Forty-two parents (22 men, 22 women) of middle school children completed a survey. The survey contained 12 scenarios comprised of either a physical or relational bullying situation. The results indicated that parents rated physical bullying as more serious than relational bullying, parents were more sympathetic to victims of physical aggression scenarios than victims of relational aggression scenarios, and parents were more likely to intervene in physical bullying scenarios than in relational aggression scenarios. Fathers rated physical bullying scenarios involving boys and girls as equally serious, while mothers rated those involving boys as more serious than those involving girls. Parents were also more sympathetic to male victims than female victims and were more likely to intervene in scenarios involving male dyads than female dyads. The results indicated that parents do not understand the seriousness of both physical and relational bullying and may benefit from an anti-bullying outreach education.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS