Parental and school bonding in Iranian adolescent perpetrators and victims of bullying

• Published in: School psychology international 2016-12, Vol.37 (6), p.583-605
• Main Authors: Mohebbi, Mina, Mirnasab, Mirmahmoud, Wiener, Judith
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent Attitudes; Adolescents; Authoritarianism; Autonomy; Bullying; Clinical assessment; Cluster Grouping; Exceptions; Foreign Countries; Gender Differences; Likert Scales; Medical screening; Multivariate Analysis; Nominations; Parent Child Relationship; Parent-child relations; Parents & parenting; Perpetrators; Psychologists; Questionnaires; Random sampling; Sampling; School Involvement; School psychologists; Secondary School Students; Secondary Schools; Student School Relationship; Victims
• ISSN: 0143-0343; 1461-7374
• DOI: 10.1177/0143034316671989

This study compared parental and school bonding in adolescents in Iran who are perpetrators of bullying, victims of bullying and not-involved in bullying. Secondary school students (N = 240) were selected by cluster random sampling and screening, and categorized as perpetrators of bullying (N = 80), victims of bullying (N = 80) and non-involved (N = 80) by teacher and vice-principal nominations. The Parental Bonding Instrument and the School Bonding Scales were completed by the students. With some exceptions (i.e., no between-group differences in maternal overprotectiveness and boys reported higher levels of school involvement than girls), results suggest similar patterns in Iran as in Western societies. With regard to parental bonding, perpetrators of bullying reported lower levels of maternal and paternal care than victims of bullying and non-involved students, higher levels of paternal overprotectiveness than non-involved students, higher levels of paternal authoritarianism (or lower levels of autonomy) than victims and non-involved students, and higher levels of maternal authoritarianism than victims. For school bonding, perpetrators of bullying reported lower levels of school and teacher attachment than the other two groups and victims reported lower levels of school and teacher attachment than non-involved students. Implications for school psychologists are discussed.