Date of Award

5-2013

Document type

dissertation

Access Type

Open Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Program

Education (also CAGS)

First Advisor

Ernest Washington

Second Advisor

Alfred Karlson

Third Advisor

Nathaniel Whitaker

Subject Categories

Education

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study is to explore student and teacher attitudes toward three types of bullying (physical, verbal and social-exclusion) in elementary schools. The secondary purpose of this study was to explore the role of gender and grade in attitudes towards the three types of bullying.

An ANOVA design was used to investigate the research questions. The population consisted of third and fifth grade students and their classroom teachers in mid to large inner city school districts. The data sets are attitudes, i.e. seriousness and empathy toward three types of bullying (physical, verbal and social exclusion) and a personal data questionnaire was used to gather demographic information and additional information about the participants. Six vignettes were used to assess student judgment about seriousness of the incident and empathy for the victim. The ANOVA for the seriousness of the incident revealed significant differences with regard to grade level but not gender. There was no interaction between grade level and vignette and gender and vignette. With regard to empathy, there were significant differences with regard to gender and grade level. Again, there was no interaction between grade level and vignette and gender and vignette. A post hoc analysis revealed significant differences between the vignettes. Students in the study identified hitting and the threat of being hit as the most serious bullying incidents

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/kqvc-4b59

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