The impact of trust in teachers on student responses to school bullying in the classroom

Given the negative consequences of bullying, it is important to identify teacherapproaches and to what degree students trust that their teachers can manage the class. Thus, this experimental study examined whether students’ trust in their teacher’s ability to manage the class would be positively associated with defending victims and negatively associated with pro-bullying and passive bystanding. 202 ninth-grade students from four lower secondary schools in Sweden participated in their classrooms. Participants were randomized to one of five vignettes describing diverse types of bullying and completed a questionnaire while imagining that they witnessed what happened in the vignette. Regarding the defender role, students with higher trustin their teachers were more inclined to defend victims of bullying, even if there was no main effect for condition. The findings did not indicate that girls are more inclined than boys to defend victims. For the passive role, students reported more passive bystanding witnessing some types of bullying compared to other types of bullying, and there was an interaction effect between type of bullying and trust in the teacher. The study adds valuable insights into the complex dynamics of student reactions to bullying and highlights the importance of students’ trust in the teacher.