Moderating effects of teachers’ praise/criticism on the bullying of vulnerable students among teenagers

Bullying is a public health issue of great concern worldwide. The occurrence of student bullying is affected by many factors. However, the impact of teachers’ behaviors on student bullying remains to be further discussed. This study explores gender differences in the influencing factors of teenagers’ bullying behavior and the moderating effects of teachers’ praise/criticism on teenagers’ bullying behavior. Data were derived from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS). A total of 9449 students aged 14–15 years were followed from grade 7 through grade 8 (4937 boys, 4512 girls). The chi-square test was used to determine the gender distribution of bullying behavior. Logistic regression was used to analyze the moderating effects of teachers’ behaviors on students’ bullying behavior, and interaction diagrams were generated. Three times as many boys (15.57%) than girls (5.14%) had ever bullied vulnerable students in the past year ( p < 0.001). Teacher praise or criticism had moderating effects on the relationships between different individual/peer factors and bullying behavior among boys and girls ( p < 0.05, p < 0.01 or p < 0.001). Moreover, teenagers with bullying behavior had significantly higher levels of cursing or saying swearwords, quarreling, fighting, engaging in antisocial behaviors, tobacco/alcohol usage, surfing the Internet, and playing games in cyber cafes. The abovementioned externalizing/substance addictive behaviors may be risk signals for the occurrence of bullying (all p < 0.001 by the chi-square test for trend or t-test). It may be beneficial for school officials to be alert to specific behaviors that may lead to bullying others. Furthermore, teachers can actively play the role of “gatekeepers” for bullying through standardized training and intervention to protect “the second home of students”.