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Bullying as a group process : attitudes, norms and behaviour in secondary schools
Author
Choo, Lay Kian
Supervisor
Huan, Vivien Swee Leng
Abstract
In Singapore, results from a survey study conducted by the Singapore Children’s Society revealed that approximately 1 in 4 secondary school students surveyed was a victim of school bullying (Koh & Tan, 2008). Since the 1990s, empirical evidence has surfaced to support the possibility of groups maintaining and reinforcing acts of bullying (Salmivalli & Voeten, 2004). Salmivalli and her colleagues investigated bullying as a group process where most children in a typical school class have definable participant roles, such as an assistant to the bully, or a defender of the victim (Salmivalli, Lagerspetz, Bjorkqvist, Osterman, & Kaukiainen, 1996).
This present study aims to investigate the connections between attitudes, classroom norms, and students’ participant role behaviours in bullying situations. The participants were 213 secondary school students, 90 girls and 123 boys, aged 12 to17 years old. The measures are largely adopted from the study by Salmivalli and Voeten (2004), consisting of the Participant Role Questionnaire (Salmivalli et al., 1996), scales to measure attitudes towards bullying, and a norm questionnaire.
Results from this study revealed that bullying-related attitudes were associated with all participant role behaviours, while classroom norms on the anti-bullying versus pro-bullying continuum predicted participant role behaviours for all except outsider, and for all except defender of victim and outsider on the normative indifference versus normative influence continuum. Prevalence of bullying, observed and experienced, predicted most participant role behaviours except for defender of victim and outsider.
Results from this study implied that bullying does take place as a group process within the Singaporean classroom, and that both attitudes towards bullying and classroom norms contribute to students’ participant role behaviours to some extent.
Intervention efforts should be targeted at the whole class, with emphasis on influencing students’ attitudes to take a stand against bullying, and on changing classroom norms to discourage bullying behaviours within the classroom. The study findings however are limited due to its cross-sectional design, small sample size, and measures adopted from a western context. Future studies may perhaps focus on uncovering other group factors that contribute to bystander behaviours in bullying situations.
This present study aims to investigate the connections between attitudes, classroom norms, and students’ participant role behaviours in bullying situations. The participants were 213 secondary school students, 90 girls and 123 boys, aged 12 to17 years old. The measures are largely adopted from the study by Salmivalli and Voeten (2004), consisting of the Participant Role Questionnaire (Salmivalli et al., 1996), scales to measure attitudes towards bullying, and a norm questionnaire.
Results from this study revealed that bullying-related attitudes were associated with all participant role behaviours, while classroom norms on the anti-bullying versus pro-bullying continuum predicted participant role behaviours for all except outsider, and for all except defender of victim and outsider on the normative indifference versus normative influence continuum. Prevalence of bullying, observed and experienced, predicted most participant role behaviours except for defender of victim and outsider.
Results from this study implied that bullying does take place as a group process within the Singaporean classroom, and that both attitudes towards bullying and classroom norms contribute to students’ participant role behaviours to some extent.
Intervention efforts should be targeted at the whole class, with emphasis on influencing students’ attitudes to take a stand against bullying, and on changing classroom norms to discourage bullying behaviours within the classroom. The study findings however are limited due to its cross-sectional design, small sample size, and measures adopted from a western context. Future studies may perhaps focus on uncovering other group factors that contribute to bystander behaviours in bullying situations.
Date Issued
2013
Call Number
LB3013.2 Cho
Date Submitted
2013