A peek inside a scoping review on the connection between children becoming peer bullying perpetrators and experiencing or witnessing violence/bullying by adults

 

The Challenge of Bullying and the Role of Adult Influence on Child Bullying

Bullying and cyberbullying are some of the challenges every single school faces worldwide, often desperate for help or trying to find someone to blame. We also know that many adults exercise similar behaviour towards children, but it is mostly not perceived as bullying. In both academic literature and everyday discourse, learning such behaviour from parents or balancing such experiences by harming weaker children is an accepted reality. However, we know much less about children being bullied by a teacher and its impact on becoming a bully. We have also seen that if children are asked about it, they report alarmingly many bullying incidents where the perpetrators are their teachers.

Research on Bullying and Adult Influence on Child Bullying

Since the 1993 study of Dan Olweus on school bullying, bullying among students has been extensively researched, and by now, there is a robust body of evidence of the negative impact on both victim and perpetrator in terms of mental health, social exclusion, and academic performance. Still, much less has been done on the potential causes and determinants of bullying behaviour. In 2000, the term cyberbullying was created by Bill Belsey, leading to more and more academic work also, including the online activities of children in their studies. Despite the huge amount of research available worldwide, there are still many research gaps, and the data isn’t proportionally available in all countries.

Understanding the Connection Between Adult Behavior and Child Bullying Perpetration

There are competing theories on why peer bullying occurs, one of which is Bandura’s social cognition theory. The social cognition theory proposes that individuals learn partially through direct instruction and, most importantly, by observing others’ behaviours and the consequences. But if bullying is something children learn, where do they learn it?

In line with the social cognition theory, we propose that children learn it first and foremost from the adults around them, at home, at school, or in the community. They see aggression, violence, and unfair treatment as a common way for people to get what they want, express their opinions, and treat others. In a yet unpublished scoping review, we aim to provide an overview of the studies conducted showing a connection between children experiencing or witnessing bullying (even if it is called something different) by adults and them becoming bullying perpetrators. 88 studies were included from all over the world, with over half coming from China or the USA.

Addressing Research Gaps and Future Directions in Understanding Adult Influence on Child Bullying

The results show that there is a significant connection between adults harming children – although it is measured under different concepts such as child, parental or family abuse, child or family maltreatment, harsh, severe or punitive parenting, corporal punishment, or children witnessing violence in their home and their community – and children becoming cyber or traditional bullies of their peers. There is significantly more evidence connecting parental or family behaviour to bullying perpetration than the behaviour of adults of authority in the children’s lives, indicating a large research gap. It is no surprise that measuring teacher bullying is so much more uncommon.

Most of the studies are conducted with the help of schools and filled in under the supervision of teachers. The first approval the researchers need to gain to access children is from the school leaders. It is much more acceptable to blame the parents or the bad influence of peers for children’s behaviour than to talk about teachers or other school staff as potential sources of undesirable role models. It is time to face the uncomfortable truth that all adults around the children must recognise their role in modelling behaviour and how it influences the children.

No study investigated together bullying by adults in the loved circle (parents, grandparents, friends of the family, etc.), bullying adults of authority (teachers, sports coaches, etc.), witnessing violence in the home and the community, and cyber and offline bullying perpetration, which is why the next study we will conduct will aim to do exactly this in Hungary and the Netherlands. While the connection of adult behaviour impacting child peer bullying perpetration seems clear from the included literature, the research gap concerning bullying perpetrated by adults of authority and studies from Europe and Africa is prevalent.