Perceptions of teachers' responses to children's peer victimization: Agreement (and lack of agreement) among teachers and students

Abstract

Recent research has underscored the importance of teachers' responses to students' peer victimization as well as students' expectations for how their teacher responds to this victimization. However, little research has examined the extent to which teachers and their students have a shared understanding of their teacher's efforts, or lack of efforts, to manage peer victimization. This study addressed this issue using longitudinal data collected on 410 students (47.1% boys; 86.8% White; M_age = 10.29 years) from 26 fourth-grade and fifth-grade classrooms. In the fall and spring, students reported on their teacher's use of six responses to peer victimization and teachers completed self-reports of their use of these same six responses. Peer reports of aggressive behavior and peer victimization were obtained in the fall. Significant agreement among classmates was found for only three teacher responses, including contacting parents, advising independent coping (i.e., telling the student to handle it on their own), and suggesting avoidance, and there was little indication that there was greater agreement among same-gender classmates or among children either high or low in aggression or peer victimization. Overall, there was little association between teachers and their students as to the teachers' uses of the six response strategies. Based on these findings, fostering a shared understanding of the consequences and expectations regarding students' engagement in bullying should be examined as a potential target of anti-bullying interventions.