Environmental and personal variables predicting school bullying: A study with Mexican adolescents

Bullying in schools has been recognized as a serious problem affecting both the normal development and the wellbeing of children. Around the world, 20% of school children are involved in bullying behavior. In Mexico there is no exact statistics about the problem but many teachers and students report this problem in diverse forms. The aim of this chapter is to elucidate some of the factors that predict bullying at schools. The sample of this study was constituted by 126 teachers from 24 cities, towns and communities of the Sonora State, in northern Mexico. Five components of the "Sample Survey for Teachers and Other Staff about Bullying" (Ministry Of Education, Ontario) were used. They included the sub-scales of type of abuse, context, actions, moment and abusive conduct at school. In addition, demographic variables were considered. The instrument was administered at the schools where teachers were taking academic training courses. Univariate analyses from the demographic data and the scales used were performed; also we conducted reliability analysis for each scale. An index for the time of abuse was created, and parcels of action taken (to deal with bullying), perception of bullying, and bullying were calculated. Finally a structural equation model was specified to estimate the relationship between context -as exogenous variable- and action taken, perception, and time of bullying -as intermediate variables- which presumably affect the bullying dependent variable. Results indicated that the context of abuse had a direct effect on the perception of bullying, action taken and time of abuse, and these variables produced a direct effect on the dependent variable bullying. Results are discussed in terms of the effect of context on bullying and the reactions of teachers. Theory on antisocial behavior suggests that offenders seek the opportunities to engage in criminal, antisocial behaviors. As our data reveal, some places, school time and actions taken by teachers could create or facilitate these opportunities for bullying.