Citation

Blomqvist K, Saarento-Zaprudin S, Salmivalli C. Scand. J. Psychol. 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Division of Psychology, University of Turku, Finland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Scandinavian Psychological Associations, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/sjop.12521

PMID

30707442

Abstract

We examined student- and context-related factors related to whether bullied students tell adults about their plight at school or at home. The sample included 1,266 students in primary (Grades 4-6) and lower secondary (Grades 8-9) schools, who had answered an online questionnaire at two measurement points about 5 months apart and were identified as victims of bullying on the basis of the latter. Only 55.4% of the bullied students had told their situation to someone, and much fewer had told an adult. Telling an adult at home was more common (34.0%) than telling a teacher (20.6%) or some other adult at school (12.7%). In a longitudinal structural equation model (SEM), factors related to increased likelihood of telling an adult were female gender, lower grade level, the chronicity of victimization, perceived negative teacher attitude towards bullying (teacher not tolerating bullying), and perceived peer support for victims (classmates' tendency to defend students who are victimized).

© 2019 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology published by Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

Bullying; bully-victims; longitudinal; participant roles; popularity; reporting; teacher attitudes; telling; victimization