Classmates and Teachers Matter: Effects of Class Norms and Teachers’ Responses on Bullying Behaviors
(2025) World Anti-bullying Forum — Location: Norvège (Stavanger) (10.June.2025)
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- Authors
Devleeschouwer, Charlie 
Tolmatcheff, Chloé
- Abstract
- School bullying is a complex social phenomenon embedded within the classroom. It has been assumed that students bully less where their peers hold negative attitudes towards bullying (i.e., the injunctive norm) and defend victimized students (i.e., the defending descriptive norm). In addition, teachers might reduce bullying in their class by showing disapproval of it. However, most cross-sectional studies on these variables are inconsistent regarding their individual impact on bullying and have rarely investigated their potential additive effect. The present study aims to fill these gaps by measuring the two peer norms and the teachers’ reactions (reported by the teachers and the students) from 1496 primary students and 79 of their teachers. We conducted a multilevel longitudinal analysis to disentangle the respective and combined effects of class-level variables on future bullying behavior. Results showed that the peer injunctive norm and teachers’ reactions (students and teachers reported) are associated with bullying five months later. This suggests that both actors could independently impact future bullying behaviors. Therefore, implementing anti-bullying programs that simultaneously target multiple levels of prevention seems more likely to achieve better bullying reduction. Surprisingly, we found no predictive effect of defending peer norms on bullying. Our study joins an emerging set of results that raises questions about the relevance of fostering defending behaviors among peers to prevent bullying.
- Affiliations
Citations
Devleeschouwer, C., Tolmatcheff, C., & Galand, B. (2025). Classmates and Teachers Matter: Effects of Class Norms and Teachers’ Responses on Bullying Behaviors. International Journal of Bullying Prevention, 1(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42380-025-00288-3 (Original work published 2025)