The influence of parental style and socioeconomic circumstances on school bullying: A systematic review

Abstract

The phenomenon of school bullying is linked to family characteristics. The way in which parenting is exercised and the socioeconomic circumstances affect students’ involvement in school bullying for the victims and bully/victims, are reviewed. We conducted a systematic review of the published literature from 1982 until 2020 by using Google-Scholar, PsycINFO, Scopus and PubMed on the following words and phrases: “school bullying”, “parenting”, and “socioeconomic factors”. Prospective cohort, cross-sectional and meta-analytic studies were included. The review results showed that the quality of parental management and the inappropriate parental style, i.e. the authoritarian, the overprotective and the indifferent, influence negatively the students in bullying, in all roles. Also, the low socioeconomic level was associated with the involvement of students in school bullying in all roles. It was found that adverse economic conditions and low educational attainment they are correlated not only with the students involved in school bullying but also with the parenting style. In conclusion, important correlations between school bullying, parenting style and socio-economic conditions emerged. Keywords: School bullying, parental style, socioeconomic circumstances