A Study of Personal and Environmental Factors Influencing Bullying

This study aims to find out the differences in the bullying
experience between boys and girls in different perspectives and to
find out the predictive power of cognitive, social and
environmental factors on students’ bully and victim tendencies. At
last, through this research, this study aims to gain a synthetic
perspective on bully phenomenon by considering various aspects in
order to provide a theoretical and empirical reference for
preventing and intervening bullying problem. The sample size of
students used in the analysis was 405 (271 boys and 134 girls)
between 12 and 14 years. They were in seventh and eighth grade at
two middle schools in Mokpo Korea. 306 caregivers of the students
participated in the survey. As the results of this study, there was
no difference in perpetrating bullying or being bullied between
boys and girls. Most students and bullies attribute the reason of
bullying to the victims’ eye-catching characteristics or social
skill problems. On the other hand, most victims did not know reason
of bullying. Social support, self-concept, attributional style, and
cultural beliefs could predict bully tendency and victim tendency.
Above all, the most important factor, that relates to bully and
victim tendency, is perceived social supports, especially parental
supports. Parents concerning about their child can be most
strongest prevention of students bullying problems.