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ERIC Number: EJ1388726
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Sep
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2159-2020
EISSN: EISSN-2161-1505
The Intent behind Bullying: An Application and Expansion of the Theory of Planned Behaviour
Jaber, Lindsey S.; Rinaldi, Christina M.; Saunders, Cory D.; Scott, Jesse
Contemporary School Psychology, v27 n3 p411-425 Sep 2023
An expanded Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, "Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes" 50:179-211, 1991, Ajzen, "Journal of Applied Social Psychology" 32:665-683, 2002) which incorporates affective, moral, and personal belief variables with Ajzen's original social, behavioural, and cognitive factors has not yet been applied to bullying and bully-victimization in junior high school students. This study addresses this gap by applying this expanded version of TPB with a sample of 342 junior high school students (M[subscript age] = 12.27, 207 girls and 135 boys) from seven schools from a large Western Canadian municipality. Overall, 11.08% of participants were classified as students who bully others ("bullies") and 13.21% as students who bully others and are also victimized themselves ("bully-victims"), with boys reporting higher levels than girls. Structural equation modelling was used to test a TPB-informed model to explain the relations between psychological adjustment, self-concept, attitude and beliefs about aggression, perceived control, intention, and bullying behaviour. The final models accounted for 40% of the variance in bullying and 34% of the variance in bully-victimization, although the models differed. Both bullying behaviour and bully-victimization were predicted by less support for the victim, normative beliefs supporting aggression/bullying, and less well-developed moral reasoning about aggression, which was, in turn, predicted by higher levels of sensation seeking and hyperactivity (both) and depression and lower ego strength (bully-victim only). For bullying behaviour, there was a direct effect of internalizing behaviour on control. In contrast, attitude and beliefs about aggression and anger control mediated the relations between internalizing/externalizing behaviour and bully-victimization. Implications of this work are discussed, including anti-bullying attitude and belief initiatives.
Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2123/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A