Theses and Dissertations

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0377-5129

Advisor

Wei, Tianlan

Committee Member

Gallo, Katarzyna

Committee Member

Karami, Sareh

Committee Member

Cutts, Qiana

Date of Degree

12-12-2025

Original embargo terms

Immediate Worldwide Access

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Educational Psychology

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Counseling, Higher Education Leadership, Educational Psychology, and Foundations

Abstract

Bullying remains a persistent challenge in schools and has been linked to diminished perceptions of capability across multiple domains. This quantitative, cross-sectional study examined how bullying victimization and bullying perpetration relate to domain-specific self-efficacy, academic, social, and emotional, among students in grades 4-12 in the southern United States. Students (N = 81) completed the Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument (APRI-BT) measuring victimization and perpetration across verbal, social, and physical behaviors. Students also completed the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C) measuring domain-specific self-efficacy. Analyses included descriptive statistics, internal consistency estimates, bivariate correlations, and hierarchical multiple regressions. Moderation by parental education and socioeconomic status were also tested. Associations were generally weak to modest. Bullying victimization was most consistently related to lower social self-efficacy, while patterns for emotional self-efficacy were less consistent. Bullying perpetration effects were modest overall but clearest for academic self-efficacy. Several effects were diminished after covariates were entered, and moderation by parental education or socioeconomic status were not consistent across models. Findings underscore the value of analyzing bullying behaviors by subtype alongside domain-specific beliefs. The links between everyday peer experiences and self-efficacy are not global but domain dependent. Results support targeting interventions to the most affected domains including social skills and peer-support structures for bullying victimization related social efficacy, and academic supports where perpetration co-occurs with academic risk. Future research should consider longitudinal and multi-informant designs to test reciprocity and reduce shared-method bias.

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