Peer bullying and disruption-coercion escalations in student-teacher relationship.

BACKGROUND

Although there have been many studies of bullying, few have linked it with the escalation of disruption-coercion that sometimes occur in the classroom. Understanding this relationship is the aim of this research.

METHOD

The study included 22114 Spanish adolescents, aged 12 to 18 years (mean age = 14.22, SD = 1.41). 49.6% were boys (mean age = 14.26, SD = 1.41) and 50.4% were girls (mean age = 14.20, SD = 1.40). The design was a sample survey with stratified cluster sampling. Data were analyzed by latent class analysis.

RESULTS

Based on direct involvement in bullying, five groups were detected: non-participants, bullies, followers, victim-bullies and victims. Involvement in bullying is associated with lower appraisal of school norms and a more negative perception of interaction with teachers, which seems to cause disruption and coercion escalations. We found differences in this respect among groups involved in bullying and non-participants.

CONCLUSIONS

The results reflect the need to try to prevent these two problems conjointly, teaching students to reject all forms of violence and, through more effective treatment of disruption, to prevent or stop escalation at early stages.