Educators’ Perceptions of Characteristics of Male and Female Bullies

Educators’ Perceptions of Characteristics of Male and Female Bullies by Melissa Marie Cafaro M.A., Marist College, 2002 B.S., Pace University, 1998 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Psychology Walden University November 2008 ABSTRACT Educators perceive female bullies differently than male bullies. Despite evid nce that bullying is a serious problem within schools in the United States, there is littl e research which focuses on how educators perceive differences and similarities of adole scent bullies based upon the gender of the bully. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine how educators perceive male and female bullies when they are desc ribe as exhibiting identical behavior. Goffman’s theory of frames formed the theoret ical foundation for this study. The independent variable of this study was gender of bully, and the three dependent variables were internalizing behavior, externalizing be havior, and social skills. Seventy-nine educators read one of two scenarios, featuring ei her a male bully or a female bully and then completed the Clinical Assessment of Be havior – Teacher Rating Form to reflect how they perceived the personality of the bul ly depicted in the scenario. The data collected were statistically analyzed usin g Analysis of Variance, Chi-square tests of independence and regression analyses. The results showed that educators do perceive male and female bullying behavior differently. The female bully was seen as more pathological, displaying higher levels of internalizing a nd externalizingEducators perceive female bullies differently than male bullies. Despite evid nce that bullying is a serious problem within schools in the United States, there is littl e research which focuses on how educators perceive differences and similarities of adole scent bullies based upon the gender of the bully. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine how educators perceive male and female bullies when they are desc ribe as exhibiting identical behavior. Goffman’s theory of frames formed the theoret ical foundation for this study. The independent variable of this study was gender of bully, and the three dependent variables were internalizing behavior, externalizing be havior, and social skills. Seventy-nine educators read one of two scenarios, featuring ei her a male bully or a female bully and then completed the Clinical Assessment of Be havior – Teacher Rating Form to reflect how they perceived the personality of the bul ly depicted in the scenario. The data collected were statistically analyzed usin g Analysis of Variance, Chi-square tests of independence and regression analyses. The results showed that educators do perceive male and female bullying behavior differently. The female bully was seen as more pathological, displaying higher levels of internalizing a nd externalizing behaviors whereas the male bully was perceived as exhibiting normal levels of bot h internalizing and externalizing behavior. There was no difference in perceived s ocial skills. Implications for positive social change are that the results coul d be used to sensitize teachers about the importance of considering gender issues when int erv i g in bullying incidents. Educators’ Perceptions of Characteristics of Male and Female Bullies