THE ROLE OF STATUS RELATED AND PARENTAL VARİABLES ON ADOLESCENTS’ BULLYING BEHAVIOR

Bullying is a serious problem among adolescents and there might be many variables which might affect this problem such as; parental and peer relations, perceived popularity and loneliness. Accordingly, the current study aimed to investigate the role of age, gender, school status, perceived popularity, loneliness, friendship quality and parental relations on adolescents' bullying behavior. A total of 250 students were recruited from secondary and high schools in Kyrenia and Nicosia regions and the age range was between 12-18 (UntitledLL.png=14.8, SD= 1.7). The participants completed questionnaires based on self-reports which includes UCLA Loneliness Scale, Friendship Qualities Scale, Peer Bullying Scale, Adolescent Family Process Measure and Popularity Scale. Participation to the study was depending entirely on students' voluntariness. Results demonstrated that there were significant relationship between bullying, popularity and loneliness. In addition, results also demonstrated that overt bullying, teasing and relational bullying scores increased with age and males demonstrated more overt bullying compared to girls. Furthermore, parental conflict significantly predicted bullying behavior among adolescents. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that bullying is a serious problem among adolescents and parental conflict, loneliness and low perceived popularity were the risks.