Abstract:

Bullying is a harmful behavior that can have a negative impact on individuals, schools, and communities. Recognizing the motives behind student bullying is crucial for effective prevention and intervention strategies against this harmful form of aggression. Additionally, understanding teachers' perspectives on the motivations behind bullying is essential, as teachers play a key role in reshaping the school environment through their skills to diminish instances of bullying and victimization. However, due to the lack of research and tools to measure the reasons for students' involvement in bullying behavior specifically in Pakistan’s context, the present Sohanjana Motivations Behind Bullying Questionnaire (SMBBQ) was developed to combine items derived from different theoretical models. A major objective of the study was to conduct a thorough development process, including exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), validation, reliability assessment and to assess the model fit. Data was collected from 250 (75% female) in-service teachers from different educational institutions in Pakistan.

The results of the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported a 5-factor solution that reflected the following motives for bullying:
(1) Power imbalance and the desire for dominance (PI),
(2) Frustration leading to aggression (FA),
(3) Bullying as an enactment of revenge (BR),
(4) Bullying as a social learning phenomenon (SLT), and
(5) Bullying as a way of satisfying sensation-seeking, sadism, and entertainment needs (SSE).

The results showed that the newly developed SMBBQ is a valid (AVE=54%, SRMR = 0.056, NFI=0.773) and reliable (Cronbach’s α= 0.76) instrument that provides valuable insights into the motivations behind bullying as perceived by teachers. The study found that power imbalance and social dominance were believed to be the most frequent motives, followed by frustration leading to aggression, and sensation-seeking, sadism, and entertainment. The secondary goal of this research paper was to examine how moral disengagement contribute to students' motivation to engage in bullying. The results of the present study showed that children with higher moral disengagement beliefs are primarily motivated to engage in bullying behavior in order to demonstrate power and derive entertainment from it. In addition, students with low moral engagement are more susceptible to being influenced by bullies and privilege. They imitate the behaviors to enjoy these privileges, according to social learning theory. However, frustration as a motivation for bullying and seeking revenge are less influenced by moral disengagement beliefs. The study has provided a comprehensive assessment of the different motivations for bullying among Pakistani students, as reported by teachers. This is a pioneering effort as such a detailed study has not been done before, especially in the Pakistani context. The findings of this research can be used to develop effective anti-bullying measures and programs aimed at reducing bullying in educational institutions. Knowing the motives behind bullying can help to tailor intervention and prevention efforts more effectively. Authors also recommend to revalidate the tool by gathering data from students, parents, and other community members. This includes comparing teachers' perceptions with those of other stakeholders to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the motivations behind bullying.

Keywords:

Motivations behind bullying perpetration, Bullying Control Interventions, Tool to measure motivations, Psychometric properties, Teachers’ report.