Objective: This study looked for a relationship between the prevalence of teachers who bully students and school behavioral problems reflected in suspensions from school.
Method: A convenience sample of 214 teachers answered an anonymous questionnaire about their perceptions of teachers who bully students and their own practices. Teachers were grouped into whether they taught at schools with low, medium, or high rates of suspensions. Analyses of variance were used to analyze continuous variables, and chi-square statistics were used to study categorical variables.
Results: Teachers from schools with high rates of suspensions reported that they themselves bullied more students, had experienced more bullying when they were students, had worked with more bullying teachers over the past 3 years, and had seen more bullying teachers over the past year.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that teachers who bully students may have some role in the etiology of behavioral problems in schoolchildren.