Studies have revealed that teachers have less willingness to intervene in relational bullying compared to physical or verbal types of bullying. To realize what factors contributed to teachers’ willingness to intervene in relational bullying can add new knowledge to this academic field. This study aimed to explore whether teachers’ normative beliefs, identification, perceived seriousness, victim-blaming tendency, and intervention efficacy of relational bullying among students can have impacts on their willingness to intervene in relational bullying. Five hundred and forty-one middle and elementary school teachers participated in this study. They were invited to endorse self-reported scales. Data were analyzed by using hierarchical multiple regression. Results showed that teachers’ identification scores on vignettes of relational bullying have no significant impact on their willingness to intervene. Higher scores on teachers’ perceived seriousness and intervention efficacy of relational bullying, and lower scores on teachers’ normative beliefs and the victim-blaming tendency of relational bullying, can predict higher scores on their willingness to intervene in relational bullying. In addition, teachers’ victim-blaming tendency of relational bullying can moderate the relationship between intervention efficacy and willingness to intervene in relational bullying. When teachers hold higher intervention efficacy, they are more willing to intervene in relational bullying regardless of their victim-blaming tendency. But, when teachers have a higher victim-blaming tendency, those with lower intervention efficacy have significantly lower willingness to intervene in relational bullying. Suggestions regarding bullying prevention and intervention were discussed at the end of this study.

Authors:
Liming Chen, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan
Hsiu-I Hsueh, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Liming Chen is a University Assistant Professor/Lecturer at National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan

See this presentation on the full schedule – Friday Schedule

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