Why Students Do Not Tell Teachers About Bullying: Retrospective Reports From Emerging Adults

Youth who experience victimization are often told to tell an adult, which – in the school environment – is typically the classroom teacher. However, many students do not disclose their bullying experience to teachers, which can prevent them from getting the support they need. To better understand reasons for nondisclosure, the current qualitative study explored the perspectives of emerging adults (N = 108; 88.7% female) and investigated the reasons why they did not tell a teacher about their victimization experience during PK-12 schooling. Several reasons were identified through thematic analysis. Consistent with prior work, participants reported not disclosing their victimization experience to teachers for the following reasons: features of bullying (e.g., not thinking bullying was serious enough to tell); emotion-based reasons (e.g., worry or shame); issue with teachers (e.g., doubting teachers’ willingness or capacity to help or lack of close relationships with teachers); preference for self-reliance; other support systems utilized; and concerns about peer reputation (e.g., do not want to be a “snitch”). In addition to these, a few new reasons emerged from our analysis: not wanting to tell teachers due to other features of bullying (e.g., the peer engaging in bullying behavior was a friend) or not telling the teacher because they “brushed it off.” Implications for supporting youth experiencing victimization are discussed.