The Role of Personal and Social Responsibility on Future Physical Education Teachers' Bullying Attitudes

Although physical education provides significant opportunities to promote physical activity, the nature of movement-performance-based, multidimensional classroom dynamics can make students primary targets for bullying, particularly in areas such as gymnasiums or even changing rooms. Therefore, teachers' interventions and awareness are critical. To create effective anti-bullying programs for teacher candidates, this study examined the impact of personal responsibility (PR) and social responsibility (SR) on attitudes towards bullying. It also highlights the possible effects of gender, year of study, and teaching experience. A total of 164 Hungarian physical education teacher candidates (PETCS) studying in the 3rd to 5th years completed questionnaires. The majority of PETCs had a high level of positive bullying attitudes, PR, and SR. While there were significant differences in bullying attitudes at gender and year of study, no differences were found in teaching experience. A significantly strong relationship was found between SR and various attitude sub-dimensions. Analyses showed a predictive effect of SR, gender, and year of study on several bullying attitudes, while PR did not show any significant effect. Since attitudes are an important factor in creating a safe classroom environment, the focus of preventive and educational programs against bullying should include developing SR.