Affiliations 

  • 1 Universiti Putra Malaysia
MyJurnal

Abstract

Introduction: Family plays an important role in the development of an adolescent. Several theories postulate in-fluences of bully behaviours within family context. Persistent act of school bullying may lead to violence and eventually disruption of a normal adolescence mental health. This study was done to address whether family factors were associated with school bully perpetrator. Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted among Form One students from twenty-five schools in Selangor. Parental and respondents’ consents were obtained prior to this research. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire comprising of sociodemographic data of the respondents, their family characteristics and parenting style. Cronbach alpha ranged from 0.70- 0.89. Data was analysed using SPSS v25. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee for Research Involving Human Subject of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). Results: Response rate was 92.7% with 1221 respondents. Majority of the respondents were females (62%), Malays (82.8%) and lived with married parents (91.2%). Prevalence of bully perpetrator was 12.8%. Parental marital status (p < 0.05), presence of substance abuse among family member (p < 0.05), presence of violence act among family member (p < 0.05), witnessing violence at home (p < 0.05), sibling violence (p < 0.05), presence of family hostility (p < 0.05) and permissive maternal parenting style ( p < 0.05) were associated with school bully perpetrators. Conclusion: This study showed the association between family factors and the development of school bully perpetrators. It is a strong message for parents, educators, policy makers and health providers to collaborate and redesign prevention programmes in an effort to contracept the birth of a school bully.