A Study of Personal and Environmental Factors Influencing Bullying

This study aims to find out the differences in the bullying experience betweenboys and girls in different perspectives and to find out the predictive power ofcognitive, social and environmental factors on students’ bully and victimtendencies. At last, through this research, this study aims to gain a syntheticperspective on bully phenomenon by considering various aspects in order toprovide a theoretical and empirical reference for preventing and interveningbullying problem. The sample size of students used in the analysis was 405(271 boys and 134 girls) between 12 and 14 years. They were in seventh andeighth grade at two middle schools in Mokpo Korea. 306 caregivers of thestudents participated in the survey. As the results of this study, there was nodifference in perpetrating bullying or being bullied between boys and girls. Moststudents and bullies attribute the reason of bullying to the victims’ eye-catchingcharacteristics or social skill problems. On the other hand, most victims did notknow reason of bullying. Social support, self-concept, attributional style, andcultural beliefs could predict bully tendency and victim tendency. Above all, themost important factor, that relates to bully and victim tendency, is perceivedsocial supports, especially parental supports. Parents concerning about theirchild can be most strongest prevention of students bullying problems.