Autonomy in face of school authority, bullying and school performance

Abstract

In order to verify the relationship between autonomy in face of authority, bullying and academic performance, we developed three scales that were applied to 274 ninth-graders from public schools in São Paulo, of which 122 were girls with a mean age of 14.1 years (SD = 0.8). It was found that the more students defended punishment for disobedience and respect for authority, the more frequently they were appointed as the best in class and vice versa; these students also considered being victims of violence, which indicates that even students with good performance do not necessarily develop autonomy in face of authority, as they may be following rules without thinking about them. Students who suffer violence tend not to be independent from authority. Further research including students from private schools could corroborate the results of this study.Keywords: Academic achievement; Authority; Bullying; Personal autonomy. Resumo Com o objetivo de verificar a relação entre autonomia frente à autoridade, de um lado, com o bullying e o desempenho acadêmico, de outro, foram construídas três escalas aplicadas a 274 alunos do nono ano do ensino fundamental de escolas públicas paulistanas; 122 do sexo feminino, idade média de 14,1 anos (DP = 0,8). Verificou-se que quanto mais o aluno concordou com a necessidade da punição à desobediência e com o respeito à autoridade, mais foi indicado como melhor nas disciplinas e vice-versa