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Classroom-level risk factors of bullying

 

Hello everyone! After taking a look at the risk factors of bullying in class, I started doing more research and came across an article addressing this topic. Today I want to focus on risk factors regarding the classroom-level. 

Firstly, it must be pointed out that the occurrence of bullying shows variations between different classrooms and schools. While demographic influences, such as the class size, show no significant effect on the bullying rate, peer group dynamics or teacher attitudes seem to be important factors (Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017).

This reminded me of the previous session, in which we discussed potential reasons why students choose not to disclose being victimized to their teachers. One example was the perception of students that teachers would blame the victim.

The significant role of peer group dynamic is shown by an increase of bullying when “peer status […] or power […] are centred upon few individuals rather than being evenly distributed” (Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017, p.246). 

Moreover, classroom norms affect participation in bullying. For instance, a decreased amount of antibullying norms is connected to an increased risk of bullying in the classroom. In addition to that, the reactions of the classmates may reinforce the bullies’ behaviour, which also represents the classroom norms (Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017). 

Previous studies have proposed “that individual vulnerabilities are more likely to lead to victimization when the classroom context allows that to happen” (Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017, p.246).

Furthermore, teacher characteristics influence the occurrence of bullying in the classroom (Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017). This can be exemplified by the implementation of an antibullying intervention named KiVa, which led to “changes in student perceptions of their teachers’ bullying-related attitudes” (Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017, p.247). The students estimated “their teachers’ attitude as more disapproving of bullying” which resulted in decreasing bullying rates (Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017, p.247).

Source: Menesini, E., & Salmivalli, C. (2017). Bullying in schools: the state of knowledge and effective interventions. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 22(sup1), 240–253. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2017.1279740

Lara Düngfelder

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