Parents confuse fighting with bullying, uni researchers find

Too many parents don’t understand the difference between bullying and fighting, research shows, with some confusing even playful behaviour with something more vicious.

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Many parents of young children don’t recognise the difference between bullying and fighting, researchers have found.

This made it harder to address and prevent bullying, according to researchers Lesley Ey from UniSA and Marilyn Campbell from Queensland University.

“Parents are confusing fighting and even playful behaviour with bullying,” they said.

“This is of concern because if parents do not have a clear understanding of the differences between fighting and bullying, they might respond inappropriately.”

There is no formal definition of bullying but researchers generally say it is behaviour that is ongoing, intends to cause harm and occurs where there is an imbalance in power.

In contrast, fighting can occur between equals and may only happen once.

The researchers conducted an online survey of 201 parents of children aged five to 10 and asked them to describe the two behaviours and the differences between them.

“Only a minority (8 per cent) of parents mentioned all three characteristics of bullying when asked to define it in their own words,” the researchers said in a report published in the Children and Youth Services Review.

“About 75 per cent of parents mentioned one or two elements of bullying in their definitions, and they largely referred to intention and repetition.”

Bullying is usually classified as being repetitive, intentional and exploiting a power imbalance.

Parents were shown 20 different scenarios and asked to categorise them – with almost all easily recognising traditional scenarios of bullying and cyber-bullying.

However, parents also labelled other scenarios as bullying – one in five applying that description to a case of playful joking where both kids laughed, a third to an exchange of nasty emails and 42 per cent to physical aggression.

The researchers called for parents to be given information and guidelines to better understand the differences in the behaviours.

“Since parents’ understanding of bullying will influence the way they respond to the behaviour, it is essential to identify the gaps in their knowledge to inform educational material for parents,” they said.

Previous research in 2018 found parents over-reported bullying and would sometimes resort to confronting other families, including fighting on school grounds in front of children.