Bullying at school: Agreement between caregivers’ and children’s perception

Abstract

Introduction. Bullying at school is usually kept secret from adults, making them unaware of the situation. Objective. To describe caregivers' and children's perception and assess their agreement in terms of bullying situations. Methods. Cross-sectional study in children aged 8-12 years old attending public schools and their caregivers. The questionnaire on preconceptions of intimidation and bullying among peers (PRECONCIMEI) (child/caregiver version) was used. Studied outcome measures: Scale of bullying, causes of bullying, child involvement in bullying, communication in bullying situations. Univariate and bivariate analyses were done and agreement was estimated using the Kappa index. Results. A total of 529 child/caregiver dyads participated. Among caregivers, 35% stated that bullying occurred in their children's schools. Among children, 133 (25%) admitted to being involved: 70 (13%) were victims of bullying, 40 (8%) were bullies, and 23 (4%) were bullied and perpetrated bullying. Among the 63 caregivers of children who admitted to be bullies, 78% did not consider their children capable of perpetrating bullying. Among children who were bullied or who both suffered bullying and bullied others, 69.9% (65/93) indicated that "if they were the victims of bullying, they would tell their family." However, 89.2% (83/93) of caregivers considered that their children would tell them if they were ever involved in these situations. Agreement was observed in terms of a positive communication (Kappa = -0.04) between 62.6% (57/91) of the child/caregiver dyads. Conclusions. Disagreement was observed between children and their caregivers in relation to the frequency and communication of bullying situations. Few caregivers whose children admitted to being involved in these situations believed it was a possibility.

Does Bullying Occur behind Closed Doors? Agreement of Bullying Reports between Parents and Children and Its Differential Associations with Child Outcomes

“…It appears that children are likely more prone to disclose or be open about their victimization experiences vis-à-vis their parents than about bullying perpetration, mirroring results in other studies [ 13 ]. Moreover, our findings largely resonate with previous studies in the field that have robustly reported low levels of agreement between parent- and child-reports of peer bullying [ 13 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. As such, our results support the notion that scholars should employ a multi-informant approach in future studies on bullying [ 28 ].…”

“…One common way of assessing the extent to which parents are aware of their children’s bullying involvement is to explore the agreement across child- and parent-reports of bullying. Studies have robustly found low rates of parent-child agreement in the general population [ 13 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ] as well as in clinical samples [ 24 ]. Agreement levels were higher for victimization as compared to perpetration, suggesting that children may be more likely to talk to their parents about their victimization experiences [ 13 ].…”

“…Agreement levels were higher for victimization as compared to perpetration, suggesting that children may be more likely to talk to their parents about their victimization experiences [ 13 ]. In one study, parents misjudged their victimized children’s readiness to seek out help and likewise held inaccurate beliefs about whether their children would engage in perpetrating bullying [ 19 ]. Similarly, parents have even been found to be largely unaware of sibling bullying at home [ 2 ].…”

Effects of racism on the socio-emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal Australian children

“…It is possible that only the more severe episodes of racism will be reported by children to their parents, which again, would contribute to underestimating racism exposure. Although caregivers believe their children would tell them about bullying/victimization at school, children who suffer discrimination refer not telling their caregivers about such experiences [57]. Therefore, future research should seek to understand experiences of racism from the child’s perspective and across all contexts [13].…”

Parental Reported Bullying among Saudi Schoolchildren: Its Forms, Effect on Academic Abilities, and Associated Sociodemographic, Physical, and Dentofacial Features

“…The role of parents in identifying and addressing the issue of bullying in their children is important. Few studies pointed out that parents may be unaware that their children are being bullied [ 21 ]. However, this may not be the case with all populations.…”