Background and Purpose: Bullying and victimization are already common problems in schools. Research shows that despite their significant role in shaping bullying and victimization, the components of family relationships have not been studied enough in this regard. Thus, the present research aimed to predict bullying and victimization among students, based on the quality of marital, parent-child, and sibling relationships.
Method: This research employed a descriptive correlational design. The population consisted of all boys studying at the first cycle of the secondary school (i.e. grades 7, 8, & 9) in District 1 of Rasht in the academic year 2019-2020 and their parents. A total of 355 individuals were selected from this population through a convenience sampling. The study tools included Illinois Bully Scale (Espelage & Holt, 2001), the Parent-Child Relationship Survey (PCRS) (Fine et al., 1983), Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS) (Busby et al., 1995), and the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire (SRQ) (Furman, 1985). Data were analyzed by multivariate regression and Pearson correlation techniques.
Results: Status/power in sibling relationships and anger toward father were significant positive predictors which accounted 22 and 7 % of the variance in bullying, respectively. Also, 22 and 16 % of the variance in bullying were predicted significantly and positively by sibling conflict and resentment towards mother (p< 0.001). Our findings also showed that the marital relationship (15%), mother-child relationship (13%), positive affect to the father (37), and communication with father were significant negative predictors of bullying (16). Also, positive affect to father, father involvement, and communication with father were significant negative predictors of victimization, accounting for 26, 38, and 20 % of the variance in this variable (p<0.001).
Conclusion: The above-mentioned results suggest that the quality of intra-family relationships (i.e. marital, parent-child, and sibling relationships) may predict children's involvement in bullying both as bullies and victims. The implications have been described in the article.