Attitudes and knowledge about bullying among teachers in Latin America
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22544/rcps.v44i01.04Keywords:
bullying, harassment, definitions, knowledge, attitudes, teachersAbstract
Bullying is a problem that produces important psychosocial costs both for those who are victimized and for those who carry it out. A step to prevent such behavior is to assess the attitudes and knowledge that teachers who work with children and adolescents have about bullying. For this purpose, an intentional sample of 417 primary and secondary school teachers with ages ranging from 20 to 65 years old (Mage = 45.06), was constituted. 12% were male, 87% female and the rest of another gender. 70% Argentine nationality while the remaining group were from other nationalities within Latin America. To evaluate, a demographic questionnaire was used, such as the Questionnaire of knowledge and attitudes about bullying by Nicolaides et al. (2002). Regarding the definitionsthat teachers gave about what bullying was for them, the minority offered intentionality and power imbalance in their definition, almost a third mentioned repetition. The most frequent was to define it as a physical aggression. Thus, some knowledge and attitudes regarding bullying met the scientific definition of bullying, while others did not. Some differences emerged based on teaching seniority and working at the primary versus secondary level with respect to attitudes and knowledge of bullying. In the discussion, the implications of these findings and some guidelines for their prevention are analyzed.References
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