Teachers Attitudes About Bullying in Preschool Children
Preschool Teachers attitudes About Bullying in Preschool Children
Martha Mendez-Baldwin
Manhattan College
Abstract
A person is bullied when he or she is repeatedly exposed to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons and he or she has difficulty defending himself or herself (Olweus, 1993). According to the Department of Education, 1 out of 3 students is bullied at school daily; 160,000 students are absent from school daily due to the fear of being bullied. Many studies have examined bullying in elementary, middle and high school aged children; however, minimal research has been done on bullying among preschool children. Bullying can occur at any age but it may be overlooked among children this young and perceived as teasing instead of bullying. The goal of this study was to gain an understanding of teachers’ attitudes about preschool bullying. Preschool teachers were asked questions regarding bullying and were given vignettes in which they had to identify certain behavior as bullying or non-bullying.
Keywords: preschool bullying, teacher attitudes, social aggression, early socialization
Preschool Teacher’s Attitudes About Bullying in Preschool Children
The goal of bullying is to gain power over and dominate other individuals. Bullies engage in hurtful behavior against those who cannot defend themselves because of size, strength, psychological resilience, physical or mental limitation, or social status (U.S. Department of Justice, 2004; Olweus, 1993). Bullying can be manifested in many ways and may be exhibited by anyone wishing to have some sort of power or strength over another person. Bullying can be exhibited by anyone regardless of their age. Research has indicated that bulling is very prevalent among school aged children. It is estimated that 13 million American children are teased, taunted and physically bullied by their peers, making bullying the most common form of violence our nation's youth experienced in 2012. Schools are no longer the safe haven they used to be.
Children as young as 12 months old may demonstrate aggression in their peer interactions and peer aggression and has been found to be very common in preschool and kindergarten (Hanish, Kochenderfer-Ladd, Fabes, Martin, & Denning, 2004). Researchers generally agree that bulling does occur in early social settings but that a young child’s understanding of, and experience with, bullying at very young ages is quite different because at this young age, children lack the ability to understand another’s perspective, intentionality, and motivation. Additionally, they have poor impulse control and lack the ability to self-reflect. Lastly, at the preschool level, children may not know what to do if they are treated in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable, upset or unhappy, or if they witness other children being harmed or bullied.
A large amount of research attention has been given to bullying among elementary, middle and high school children; however, bullying among preschool aged children has not received much research attention. The nature of bullying and its roots in the preschool age group is not well understood (Reunamo, Kalliomaa, Repo, Salimen, Lee, & Wang, 2015). Because bullying behavior is typically associated with older kids, it is often overlooked during the younger years, when it is hard to tell the difference between normal social experimentation and emergent bullying behavior. Learning how to get along well with others is one of life’s most important challenges. Child care settings—including daycares, preschools, home care groups, and playgroups—often provide young children with their first ongoing social experiences. Children need the opportunity to observe, learn, and practice the many social skills they need to get along and build friendships with their peers. Experiences during the early childhood years are an important foundation for the development of healthy social skills. Positive experiences during the early childhood years facilitate the formation of healthy early friendships and may reduce aggressive behaviors such as bullying (Hanish et al., 2004). Preschool teachers play an instrumental role in teaching and encouraging pro-social skills, such as sharing, helping, and including others. In this way, early education and child care providers may play a key role in preventing bullying from occurring, reoccurring, or intensifying.
The goal of this study was to examine preschool teachers’ attitudes about bullying in preschool children. The researchers hoped to learn about teachers’ views about the prevalence of bullying and social aggression among this age group as well as teachers’ ability to identify
bullying and effectively intervene in bullying situations.
Method
Participants
The participants for this study consisted of 27 teachers from an Early Education Center in the Bronx, New York. Participants were preschooler teachers of children ages 3-5 years enrolled in Head Start and Universal Pre-Kindergarten programs. Head Start and Universal Pre-K promote school readiness for families of low-income status that meet the Poverty Guidelines published by the federal government. Eligibility criteria for a family of three is annual income below $20,000. All the participants were female, except for one who was male. Participants ranged in age from 22-40 years of age. 51.9 % (n=14) of the teachers were Hispanic and 48.1% (n=13) were African American. The participants mean age was 32.4 years (SD=4.1) and the teachers’ years of experience teaching ranged from 3 years to 10 years.
Materials
A survey, Bullying Survey for Preschool Teachers, which was created by the researcher, was used in this study. The survey consisted of 25 statements assessing teachers' attitudes about bullying in preschool aged children rated on a 4 point Likert Scale ranging from (1) strongly agree to (4) strongly disagree. Sample questions included, "Bullying is part of normal childhood, so parents and teachers should not worry about it too much" and " I have observed incidents of bullying among my students."
The survey also included two additional questions. One question described five hypothetical vignettes, two of which described bullying scenarios. Teachers were asked to identify the vignettes that involved bullying and explain how they would handle the situation(s). The last question was an open-ended question asking the teacher to describe how they would intervene if they observed a child engaging in bullying behavior.
Procedure
IRB approval was obtained for the study. The Vice-President of the childhood education center granted permission to recruit teachers for the study. All participants completed an informed consent document prior to participation. Participants completed the surveys during a staff meeting. The participants took about 20 minutes to complete the survey. Debriefing forms were distributed after the questionnaires were completed.
Results
Bullying and Aggression Among Preschoolers
When asked about observing incidents of bullying, 55.5% of teachers strongly agreed or agreed with the statement “I have observed bullying among preschoolers” while 44.4% strongly disagreed or disagreed with the statement. When asked about observing incidents of aggression, 61.6% disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement “I have observed physical aggression among preschoolers” while 38.5% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement.
However, the majority of teachers, 74.1%, strongly agreed or agreed with the statement “Social aggression is common among preschool children. The results also showed that the majority of the teachers, 76.6%, disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement “Bullying is a problem among preschoolers” while 23.1% agreed or strongly agreed with this statement. 92.6% of the teachers strongly agreed that they would witness more bullying if they worked with older children. Furthermore, 85% of teachers do not believe that bullying is a part of normal childhood
Identification, Intervention & Prevention
33.3% of the teachers’ reported that they have participated in a bully prevention program. Furthermore, 92.6% of participants reported that they feel confident in their ability to handle bullying; however, 84.7% of the teachers reported that they would not intervene if they saw one child bully another and 51.8% disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement “I can identify which children are at risk of being bullied”.
92.6% of the teachers agreed that bully prevention should start at preschool and 96.3% agreed that they teach their preschool students about bullying. A majority of the teachers, 85.2%, strongly disagreed or disagreed when asked whether their students knew the difference between reporting bullying and tattle telling.
Vignettes
The teachers’ responses to the 5 vignettes were scored according to whether they correctly identified the hypothetical scenario as bullying or non-bullying. The average percent correct for the 5 vignettes was 77.04%.
Responding to Bullying
Responses to the open-ended question “what would you do if a child was being bullied in your preschool classroom?” revealed that the two most frequently reported responses were: “tell
a parent” (53.2%) and “report it to my supervisor” (31.2%).
Discussion
The results provided some preliminary data which could help in beginning to understand bullying among preschool children. Results revealed that about half of the preschool teachers have observed bullying among preschool students; however, a larger proportion of the teachers have observed social aggression among preschool students. Since very few teachers reported having participated in a bully prevention training program, it is possible that what some of the teachers are classifying as social aggression may indeed be bullying. Additionally, a significantly large percentage of the preschool teachers sampled in this study reported that they would not intervene if they saw two children bullying each other and about 1/3 of the sample was unable to correctly identify a hypothetical bullying scenario. These are alarming findings that clearly demonstrate the need for bully prevention training for all teachers starting at the preschool level. Proper training may better prepare preschool teachers to correctly identify bullying and increase the likelihood that they will intervene if they do observe bullying among preschool students. Since most cases of bullying begin at school, teachers are a first line of defense against bullying. Preschool teachers must take an active role in both bully prevention and intervention. The results of this study provide preliminary data suggesting that preschool teachers may not be prepared to effectively assume this role.
References
Hanish, L. D., Kochenderfer-Ladd, B., Fabes, R. A., Martin, C. L., Denning, D., & Ladd, B. K. (2004). The classroom context of bullying in early childhood. In S. Swearer, & D. Espelage (Eds.), Bullying in American schools: A Social ecological perspective on prevention and intervention (pp. 141-159). Erlbaum.
Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at school: What we know and what we can do. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing
Reunamo, J., Kalliomaa, M., Repo, L., Salminen, E., Lee, H-C., & Wang, L-C. (2015). Children's strategies in addressing bullying situations in day care and preschool. Early Child Development and Care, 185(6), 952-967. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2014.973871