Classroom-Level Authoritative Teaching and Its Associations with Bullying Perpetration and Victimization

The aim of the present study was to investigate and clarify the association between authoritative teaching at the classroom level and bullying perpetration and victimization among Swedish upper elementary school students. For this purpose, authoritative teaching was analyzed both as combined construct, and as the effects of the two dimensions that characterize authoritative teaching (i.e. structure and support). In all, 1,522 students (M-age = 10.54 SD = 0.35) from 110 classrooms completed a questionnaire in their classrooms. The findings from the multilevel regression analyses showed that students in classrooms with less authoritative teachers engaged more in bullying behaviors and were more often victimized. When authoritative teaching was divided into structure and support, only teacher support showed a significant negative association with bullying perpetration and victimization.