Pupil and parent attitudes towards bullying in primary schools

Abstract

This paper describes an investigation of pupil and parent attitudes towards bullying, comparing attitudes with bullying behaviour. 747 parents and 326 children aged 6 to 11 from four primary schools completed the Parental Attitudes to Bullying Scale and the Children’s Attitudes to Bullying Scale. Most were found to be largely sympathetic towards victims, supportive of intervention, but less understanding towards bullies. There was little association between parental and children’s attitudes, nor did parent attitudes predict children’s behaviour, although there was a link between the children’s attitudes and their behaviour. Mothers were more sympathetic than fathers, but there were no sex differences among children. Children with more siblings were more likely to bully others.