Educator Interventions in Bullying of Male and Female High School Students in Ohio

This quantitative comparative study examined gender differences among male and female high school educators’ chosen interventions in students’ bullying. The sample for this study included 132 high school educators out of a population of 412 from five public high schools in southwestern Ohio. Educators responded to an electronic survey asking them to read vignettes representing three types of bullying events and to choose the highest level of intervention they would likely take for both aggressor and victim. Participants received one of four surveys varying only in the gender-specific names of the bullies and victims. Survey responses provided data for educators’ perceptions of male bullies and male victims, female bullies and female victims, male bullies and female victims, and female bullies and male victims. Data analysis with ANOVAs found some statistically significant results including educators choosing a higher level of intervention for verbal bullying than for physical or relational bullying, and female educators choosing a higher level of intervention for male victims than did male educators. Marginally significant results indicated that male educators chose a higher level of intervention for female victims than male victims of relational bullying. Effect size calculations added depth to analyses. Results indicated that more research about student bullying needs completing with high school educators and students