Teachers' attitudes towards overt and covert bullying, and perceived efficacy to intervene

Covert bullying has become a serious problem in Australian schools. Past research has focused on overt bullying, especially physical forms. This study explores teacher characteristics that influence their attitudes and responses to covert bullying. Responses to three scales measuring teacher attitudes towards bullying, perceived self-efficacy and preferred style of handling bullying incidents, as well as background questions were sought from 62 teachers from a Catholic Diocese in Queensland. Overt bullying incidents were taken more seriously than covert bullying; victims were shown empathy and intervention was likely. All teachers showed high levels of self efficacy and were likely to intervene in overt bullying incidents. The most predominant style for handling bullying was one that focused on punishing the bully. Ongoing professional development is warranted to help ease this insidious problem in schools. [Author abstract]