Perceptions of Bullying Victimization: Differences between Once-Retained and Multiple-Retained Students in Public and Private Schools in Brazil

Abstract

Being retained a grade in school has been associated with a number of negative outcomes for children. It is unclear, however, if being bullied is among them. In this study, differences were examined between retained and promoted students in their self-reported bullying victimization—verbal, physical, and social/relational bullying, and bullying in general. Unique to the study was that those differences were investigated as a function of students being in public or private schools. It was hypothesized that greater bullying of retained students would occur in private schools, where being retained is less common. The sample consisted of 378 students, grades 5 through 9, attending four public and two private schools in Southern Brazil. Retained students in private schools reported greater verbal and social/relational bullying, and bullying in general, than retained students in public schools. Differences in bullying victimization were not found between promoted, once-retained, and multiple-retained students in public schools (due to sample size this was not examined in private schools). Findings suggest the need for interventions that target pre-retention behaviors that may be associated with being bullied. A secondary purpose of the study was to provide evidence supporting the factor structure of the Brazilian Portuguese version of Delaware Bullying Victimization Scale – Student (Brazilian DBVS-S). CFA results supported both a bifactor model and three-factor model, but support was stronger for the latter. Reliability of the three subscale and total scale scores was evidenced by internal consistency coefficients above .70.