Citation

Hertzog JL, Harpel T, Rowley RL. Child. Sch. 2016; 38(1): 21-29.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, National Association of Social Workers [USA], Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/cs/cdv037

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate the views of school staff, early adolescents, and parents about which behaviors constitute bullying or teen dating violence (TDV), with attention focused on perceived overlap between the two. To achieve this aim, a mixed-methods design was used to quantitatively investigate the factors associated with middle school students (n = 198), their parents (n = 131), and school staff (n = 113) designating behaviors as TDV, bullying, or both and to qualitatively assess the factors that influenced perceptions of a smaller sample of school personnel (n = 44). Survey results indicated that differences in categorizations of behaviors across groups did exist, whereas focus group data provided in-depth insights into school staff perceptions of behaviors on the bullying-TDV continuum. Overall, results indicated that perceptions of TDV as a significant problem within the school varied between students, parents, and school staff. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for school policy and avenues for future research.

Language: en