A Research On Elementary School And Junior High School Teachers' Views On School Bullying: Definitions, Attitudes And Coping Strategies

Bullying is a subset of aggressive behavior that is of high prevalence among school children. Bullying causes physical and mental harm, which affects both bullies and victims. Teachers, as undertakers of interventions program, play a crucial role in managing and preventing the problem of bullying. The present study aimed to assess teachers' conceptions about bullying; what behaviors teachers regard as bullying; their attitudes towards bullying, bullies and victims; and how they cope with bullying.In the present study, 235 teachers from 4 elementary schools and 4 junior high schools have finished the questionnaire; meanwhile, 484 students from 2 elementary schools and 2 junior high schools have finished another questionnaire. The main results are as follows:1. Teachers disagreed with researchers' criteria that "there is a power imbalance between the bully and the victim" and "the bullying behavior often occurs without apparent provocation".2. Most of the teachers made a complex attribution. Compared with other teachers, those with 6-15 years experiences on teaching prefered to make a complex attribution.3. Teachers viewed bullies as hot-tempered, doing poorly at schoolwork, has learning difficulties, always living in violent circumstances, considered that their parents are in bad relations, quarrel with each other frequently and have inconsistent upbringing methods. Teachers viewed victims as diffident, incommunicative, and having few friends. The longer the teaching experiences, the more probability that teachers believed that victims have few friends. Compared to teachers from elementary schools, teachers from junior high schools thought that victims would not live in a violent environment.4. Teachers viewed a wide range of behaviors as bullying, but significantly more agreed that some items (physical aggression) were bullying than agreed others were (indirect aggression).5. Teachers viewed physical aggressive behavior as the most serious bullying behavior, and expressed most attitudes of care and help. Male teachers expressed a more sympathetic attitude towards victims than female teachers.6. There is no significant difference on dealing with bullying in 3 kinds of incidents. Generally teachers would criticize and punish the bullies, give comfort and help to the victims, and help bystanders take a more active role to support victims.7. There is no significant difference in providing coping strategies to victims in 3 kinds of bullying incidents. Generally teachers would suggest that victims should tell bullies to stop, tell a teacher, tell parents and get help from classmates/friends.