Teacher reports on early childhood bullying: how often, who, what, when and where

ABSTRACT

This study examined prevalence, types, bully and victim characteristics, times and places bullying occur, relationship between class size and bullying, and relationship between teachers’ level of education and preschool bullying. Participants were a convenience sample of 246 Turkish preschool teachers working with children between 36 and 72 months. Preschool Peer Bullying Scale-Teacher Form was the main data collection instrument. Findings revealed that the most frequent bullying behaviours were rejecting a classmate joining in a game and hitting, slapping, punching, pinching or kicking a classmate. While preschool bullies were characterized as boys having behavioural problems, victims could be girls or boys obeying the rules. Bullying occurred when and where there was a lack of adult supervision, the number of boys increased the likelihood of early childhood bullying, and teachers having an undergraduate degree reported more bullying incidents. Implications are discussed for school counsellors and psychologists, researchers, as well as educational policy-makers.

KEYWORDS:

• Bullying
• early childhood
• preschool
• teachers

Acknowledgments

The author is sincerely thankful to Zeynep Nur Besnili assisting the data collection procedure of this research. The author is also grateful to the teachers who voluntarily participated to this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Ibrahim Tanrikulu, PhD, is an assistant professor in Psychological Counseling and Guidance Department/Faculty of Education, Gaziantep University, in Gaziantep/Turkey. He earned his PhD in Psychological Counseling and Guidance at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. His interests include prevention research on bullying, cyberbullying and sibling bullying. In addition to the primary, middle, and high school students and university students, he conducts research on bullying prevention in pre- school level.

ORCID

Ibrahim Tanrikulu http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9117-8047