Student attitudes and perceptions of teacher responses to bullying: An experimental vignette study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although teachers are key in bullying intervention, little is known about their responses to bullying and how students perceive them. This study investigated whether experimentally manipulated teacher responses in vignettes (i.e., non‐response, comforting victim, correcting bully, both comforting victim and correcting bully) predict differences in student attitudes and perceptions (i.e., students’ bullying attitudes, empathy towards victims, perception of teacher bullying attitudes, response evaluations). Fourth‐to‐sixth graders (N = 251, 44.2% boys, M age = 10.86) read a bullying incident vignette that differed regarding the teacher’s response, before completing questionnaires. Analyses of variance demonstrated no differences in students’ bullying attitudes and empathy between conditions. The multiple response was evaluated as more appropriate than the single active responses. Correcting bully was perceived as the most appropriate single response and was associated with more perceived teacher anti-bullying attitudes, indicating that students deduced beliefs from teacher behaviour. Non-response was associated with the most negative student perceptions.