Date of Award

5-2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Executive Leadership

First Supervisor

Jeannine Dingus-Eason

Second Supervisor

Ruth Harris

Abstract

Parents’ ability to interpret and respond to acts of bullying is a complex issue (Sawyer, Mishna, Pepler, and Weiner, 2011). The current research recommendations stress the need for research to include parents and their responses to bullying. This study examined factors that influenced parents’ experiences, perceptions, and responses to bullying. The sample size consisted of 940 parents with children that attended an elementary school in an urban public school. A triadic reciprocal determinism model was recognized as a proper framework for this study and served to examine the continuous reciprocal interaction between behavior, cognitive, and environment influences (Bandura, 1989). The quantitative methodology was comprised of descriptive, correlation, between groups (MANOVA), and regression analyses. Quantitative results indicated that parents who were not victimized during their K-12 school years were less concerned about their child being bullied at school. Parents who were victimized during their K-12 school years perceived bullying at school were strongly concerned and acknowledged bullying as a problem. However, parents indicated that when they are highly concerned about bullying they gave both passive and proactive advice to their children. In regards to response, parents are advising their children on how to proactively respond to bullying. On average, parents were likely to advise their children to fight back. Furthermore, parents reported themselves to be likely engaged in positive adult coping strategies as a means of intervening when bullying occurs and/or preventing bullying in general.

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