ABSTRACT
This study aimed to describe school bullying behaviors from the perspective of perpetrators. A cross-sectional survey design was employed using stratified cluster random sampling to select samples (N = 123; 41.5% girls and 58.5% boys) of elementary and junior high school students in Bandung City. Being a perpetrator was measured by the frequency of bullying other students physically, verbally, and psychologically in the past month. Students who were bullying others at least 2 times in the past month were categorized as perpetrators. Agreement scales measured reasons for bullying others and beliefs supportive of violence. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics by presenting mean scores and percentage of bullying incidents and reasons for bullying others by gender and grades. Results showed that boys were more frequent bullying others than girls. Boys and girls reported different reasons for bullying others. Junior school students were more frequent bullying others than elementary school students. Boys and junior students display significantly firmer beliefs supportive of violence compared to girls and elementary students. These results revealed perpetrators’ characteristics and reasons for bully others. The implication of these results suggested that teachers pay more attention to students’ behavior at school to prevent increasing bullying incidents.
