Factors Associated with Bullying Behavior in Islamic Private Schools, Pattani Province, Southern Thailand

The purpose of this research was to investigate the associations between students’ bullying behaviors in Islamic private schools, Pattani province and classroom management factors (democracy, authoritarian, and permissive classroom management), family upbringing factors (strict, permissive, and democracy upbringing), environment violence factors (influence of peers violence, community violence, and parents violence), and to identify risk factors for bullying behaviors. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,500 students were interviewed to collect relevant data by using a screening inventory for students at risk of exposure to bullying behavior in Islamic private schools (Laeheem & Sungkharat, 2012). Pearson Product-moment correlation test was used to analyze the associations between bullying outcome and various determinants linked to classroom management factors, family upbringing factors, and environment violence factors. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for bullying. The study indicated that there were significant associations between bullying behavior and authoritarian classroom management, strict upbringing, influence of peers violence, and influence of parents violence. The influence of parents violence was clearly the most strongly associated predictors in explaining the students bullying behavior (Beta value= 2.26). The strict upbringing, authoritarian classroom management, and influence of peers violence were also made some contribution in explaining the variance in the students bullying behavior (Beta value= 1.93, 0.23, and -3.27), respectively.