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THE JOURNAL OF SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY MEDICINE - Volume 8 Issue 1, January-March 2021

Pages: 5-13
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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PARENTING STYLES, PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT AND BULLYING: A CROSS-SECTIONAL RETROSPECTIVE STUDY UPON A SAMPLE OF ROMANIAN STUDENTS

Author: Alina Vlazan, Sebastian Pintea

Category: Medical

Abstract:

INTRODUCTION: Based upon the literature on the relationship between parenting styles and bullying and also upon the role of social support, our study aimed at bringing evidence about the relationship between these concepts on a Romanian sample of students.

METHOD: Using a retrospective approach, we investigated 100 students who were asked to remember their high school experience related to bullying, family behaviors, and perceived social support. Our study is a retrospective correlational one. This means that students had to respond to the bullying scale concerning their high school experience, as they remembered it. The questionnaire containing all scales was administered in the online environment. First, participants signed an informed consent and, after that, they received all the items.

RESULTS: The permissive style of parenting was negatively and significantly correlated with being a physical victim (r= -0.210, p< 0.05) and psychological victim (r= -0.300, p< 0.01) of bullying. The permissive style was positively and significantly correlated with family support (r=0.483, p< 0.01), friends support (r=0.276, p< 0.01) and significant others' support (r=0.366, p< 0.01). The only variable with significant gender differences was the verbal aggressor status, with males having a significantly higher level (M=4.48, SD=2.18) than females (M=3.49, SD=0.66), t=-3.202, p=0.002.

DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS: We found that the permissive and the authoritative/democratic styles of parenting had a protective role against being a bullying victim, while the authoritarian style was associated with a rather high probability of being a victim-aggressor. Second, we found that the permissive and the authoritative/democratic styles were associated with high levels of perceived social support, from all three sources measured, family, friends, and significant others, while the authoritarian style was associated with low levels of social support. Third, we found that perceived social support had a protective role against being a bullying victim. Limits of the study along with its implications for research and practice are also discussed.

Keywords: parenting styles, bullying, social support, gender differences

DOI: 10.51546/JSUM.2021.8101

DOI URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.51546/JSUM.2021.8101

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