04/09/2021
By Karen Mullins

School of Criminology and Justice Studies is proud to announce a Doctoral Dissertation Defense by Weidi Liu entitled “Moral Filter, Parenting Influence, and Bullying Behavior in Chinese Schools.”

Date: Friday April 23, 2021
Time: 1-2:30 p.m.
Location: Via Zoom (Meeting ID: 963 2798 7172)

Committee:

  • Sheldon Zhang, Chair
  • Andrew Harris
  • Ruth Liu, San Diego State University
  • Ryan Shields

Abstract
Bullying is considered a major form of school violence in most Western countries and of grave concern to teachers and school administrators. In China, however, bullying behaviors at school have traditionally been downplayed or trivialized. Nor has the research community paid much attention to bullying at school as a social problem, although many adults can recall involvement in bullying in their school days. This dissertation seeks to understand different forms of school bullying in China, with a focus on how individual choice to engage in bullying behaviors is filtered through their moral standards and social situations, and explore how parenting practices may impact bullying behaviors. This dissertation consists of three papers. The first paper tests the applicability of Situational Action Theory (SAT) in the explanation of physical and cyber bullying behaviors among Chinese adolescents. The conditional effects of self-control and deterrence are also examined with split-sample analyses. The results show that morality has a robust effect on bullying behaviors, whereas control mechanisms have little restraining effect when personal morality is low. The second paper integrates SAT and Risky Lifestyle/Routine Activity Theory to examine sexual bullying. The results show that morality has both a direct effect on sexual bullying as well as an indirect effect through the intervening mechanism of risky lifestyle. Self-control moderates both the direct and indirect effects of morality on sexual bullying. The third paper examines the intervening mechanisms of negative emotions, endorsement of violence, and self-control in the relations of corporal punishment and physical bullying. The findings show all three mediators represent avenues through which corporal punishment increases adolescent physical bullying. Together, the papers advance our understanding of bullying in Chinese cultural context by identifying how parenting practice and individual moral standards contribute to the etiology of bullying behaviors. At a theoretical level, the findings highlight the need for future research that incorporate multiple theoretical perspectives to understand school bullying. At an intervention level, the findings point to the urgent need of attention to the frequent occurrence of bullying in Chinese schools and importance of coordinated efforts from teachers and parents.