Description

Bullying has devastating consequences. Because
of the magnitude of the aftermaths, bullying has
been investigated by scholars around the world.
Prior studies, however, contains several limitations
and this study is designed to address those
shortcomings. This study applies ecological system
theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) as a theoretical
framework to identify different levels of factors
influencing bullying behavior in schools. This study
also develops four measures of peer influence
relevant to bullying behavior, and improves the
definition of bullying and its measures by including
severity, duration, and visibility dimensions of
bullying. Using a multiple cluster sampling method,
the author randomly selected 36 classes from 6
different areas of South Korea. Data were collected
from 1,238 middle school students in those selected
classes in 2007. Findings suggest all of the
ecological systems as well as individual traits were
found to be statistically significant influences on
bullying either directly or indirectly. The results
from this study should be useful to school
authorities as well as anyone who may be interested
in testing bullying behavior.