Are kids likely to pick up bullying behavior at home?
Although we don’t know how bullying arises in all cases, some contributing childrearing factors include (Olweus, 1995): • Authoritarian or punitive parenting. Children brought up in a harsh home environment often become angry and aggressive. • Coercive parenting. Parents who use power assertive techniques, especially physical punishment, yelling, and name calling, often generate fear about punishment in their children. These children also tend to identify with and model such aggressive authority figures. • Caretakers’ attitudes such as indifference, lack of warmth or involvement • Permissiveness for aggression seen as inadequate limit setting • Temperament of the child, e.g. an active or hotheaded child But keep in mind that just as we do not know the direct cause of bullying, we do not know why some children who grow up in a home that could be expected to foster bullying behavior do not succumb to following this path. It may also be that factors in children’s social environment, parti
