An Investigation of the Role of Parenting styles and Siblings in School Bullying Behaviors

The acts of Bullying in schools have always been a matter of concern with high prevalence reported around the world. Whether direct or indirect, bullying has long term negative impacts on academic, social, and emotional functioning on the bully, victim, and the bystanders. In some cases, aggressive behavior in the form of bullying in childhood often persists into adulthood and the more conduct problems and less favorable views of school often lead to academic disengagement in bullies. The current study investigates bullying behavior and the role of parenting style and presence of sibling in children of the age group 6-12 years. The Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire and The Olweus Bully Questionnaire were used in data collection. Results of the study revealed that there is a statistically significant difference in the level of bullying behavior among the three types of parenting styles with the bullying score of children with authoritarian parenting style higher than authoritative and permissive parenting style. Bullying behavior was higher for children having siblings in their family. The implication of the study is for all stakeholders in the education system towards increasing attention in implementing evidence-based prevention as well as intervention programs to target bullying behavior in schools that involves parenting skills training as part of Multi-tiered Systems of Support framework which will reduce the future incidence of such behaviors in children.