Victims and Perpetrators of Bullying in Physical Education Lessons: The Role of Peer Support,Weight Status,Gender,and Age in Polish Adolescents

Abstract

Physical education is a space in which adolescents may become the victims or perpetrators of bullying. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between being a victim or perpetrator of physical, verbal, or social bullying in physical education, and peer support, gender, weight status, and age. The sample consisted of 2, 848 adolescents (1, 512 girls and 1, 336 boys) aged 14–16 from Poland. The participants’ body mass index was determined based on their measured height and weight. The Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children questionnaire was used to assess whether the participants were victims or perpetrators of bullying. Peer support during physical education was assessed using the modified Teacher and Classmate Support Scale. The analysis of logistic regressions revealed that low peer support increased the probability of being the victim of physical, verbal, and social bullying (odds ratio [OR], 1.58–2.91) and becoming a perpetrator of bullying (OR, 1.14–1.37) in physical education. Additionally, being overweight increased the likelihood of being a verbal victim (OR, 1.39) and being obese raised the probability of becoming social victim (OR, 1.60). Boys more often experienced (OR, 1.12–2.06) and caused bullying (OR, 1.25–1.89) than girls. Moreover, victims were mainly younger (14-year-old) students (OR, 1.16–1.21), while perpetrators were more often older (15- and 16-year-old) adolescents (OR, 1.12–1.20). This research indicated that peer support can play a key role in preventing bullying in physical education. Physical education teachers should pay special attention to unpopular and rejected students because they most often become the victims and perpetrators of bullying. Creating a climate that fosters the development of high peer support might protect adolescents from becoming a victim—and a perpetrator—of bullying in physical education.

Bullying in Physical Education

Bullying is a widespread problem at schools, especially among adolescents (e.g., Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017). Bullying manifests in different ways within educational settings, taking the form of physical (e.g., pushing, kicking, hitting), verbal (e.g., teasing, name-calling), and social (e.g., exclusion from a group, manipulation) aggression (Olweus, 1993). Kuntsche et al. (2006), in an international study also including 6, 024 Polish adolescents, noticed that over 15% admitted to being the perpetrator of physical bullying at school, 31.4% for verbal and 12.4% for social form.

Bullying in school settings has been studied relatively extensively but less is known about the occurrence of bullying in school physical education in Poland and other countries. However, some research indicated that physical education lessons are a space in which bullying occurs in different regions of the world (Gråstén & Kokkonen, 2020; Jiménez-Barbero et al., 2020). In a study by Vaillancourt et al. (2010) of 11, 152 Canadian children and adolescents, 43% of participants reported being teased in the gym, and 44% in the changing rooms. Gano-Overway (2013) indicated that in a sample of 528 middle-school American students, 28% had been bullied during physical education classes and 15% had bullied others. In Europe, Ornelas Melim and Ferreira Leite de Oliveira Pereira (2015) found that in a sample of 1, 818 students from Portuguese schools, almost a third had experienced violence during physical education. However, in Poland there are no studies examining bullying in physical education.

There are different reasons for the occurrence of bullying in physical education. During physical education students undertake physical activities, express their emotions during plays and games, cooperate or compete in teams. Activities during physical education involving direct physical contact and collisions (e.g., football, rugby) resulted in higher physical and verbal aggression scores among students than non-contact activities (e.g., volleyball, athletics) and increased the amount of bullying experienced by victims (Koc, 2017). Additionally, to participate in physical education, students usually change their clothes in locker-rooms, putting on outfits that often expose body shape (Vaillancourt et al., 2010). O’Connor and Graber (2014) reported that in the opinion of students, their appearance, body size, physical ability, sportswear, and underwear, as seen in the locker-room, were causes of verbal bullying in physical education. Moreover, in physical education physical fitness, motor skills, and physical capital are used as a means to gain status, symbolic power, and acceptance among peers (Tudor et al., 2019). Thus, overweight students and those with poor physical skills (Bejerot et al., 2011) or low status within a group might often be ignored when players are selected for teams (Hill, 2015).

One of the commonly used models in the literature to explain the mechanisms of school violence is the ecological-transactional model of development (ETMD) (Cicchetti & Lynch, 1993; Overstreet & Mazza, 2003). The basic premise of the ETMD is that children operate within multiple contexts (ecologies) that influence each other and the children’s personal development. These ecologies vary in their proximity to the individual and operate at the macrosystem, exosystem, microsystem, and ontogenic level (Overstreet & Mazza, 2003). It has been shown that among other factors, peer relations (microsystem), and weight status, gender, and age (ontogenetic level) are independent single determinants of bullying in school settings (Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017; Puhl et al., 2011). According to ETMD, in certain circumstances being a victim or a perpetrator might concern every student. Do the same associations occur in the specific conditions of physical education?

Peer Support, Weight Status, Gender, Age, and Being a Victim of Bullying in Physical Education

While the literature on bullying and peer support at school is extensive, fewer studies have explored this issue in the narrow aspect of physical education (e.g., O’Connor & Graber, 2014; Wiltshire et al., 2017). Support from peers has proven to constitute protection for victims of bullying in physical education (Puhl et al., 2011). Evans et al. (2016) have noted that students with weaker connections with peers were more likely to report being a victim of bullying in school sports compared to those with more friends. Jiménez-Barbero et al. (2020) found that when a positive class climate was developed and anti-bullying behaviors were acquired in physical education, the occurrence of bullying was reduced.

One of the main risk factors for becoming a victim of bullying is body weight status, mainly overweight and obesity (Trout & Graber, 2009). In a study focusing on overweight and obesity in 1, 555 adolescents by Puhl et al. (2011), the majority of students were teased, ignored, avoided, or excluded during physical activities because of their body weight. They also experienced negative rumors spread about them, verbal threats, and physical bullying. It should be noted that underweight and weaker boys were more likely to be victims of bullying in the school community and physical education context compared to underweight girls (Gerdin & Larsson, 2018).

The research has shown that boys experiencing bullying more often than girls (e.g., Cook et al., 2010). This trend has been also observed in Polish schools (Twardowska-Staszek et al., 2018). For girls, bullying more often takes indirect and social forms (Mazur & Małkowska, 2003; Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017). In physical education, it has been found that boys engaged in verbal and physical forms of bullying more often than girls (Savucu et al., 2017; Vianna et al., 2015).

In relation to age, studies have shown that bullying changes with maturing and younger students are more likely to be victimized than older ones (e.g., Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017). The same relationships are observed in physical education and school sports activities. For example, in a sample of 15, 023 primary and secondary pupils, Noret et al. (2015) found that in school sports-related situations, more primary students were the victims of bullying in comparison to secondary pupils. Age also determines the forms of bullying. International studies, also including the ones conducted in Poland, have shown that both, in the school environment and in physical education, children and younger adolescents are more consistent in using direct forms of bullying like physical and verbal (Kuntsche et al., 2006). While among older students indirect forms such as social and cyber bullying are more prevalent (Twardowska-Staszek et al., 2018).

Peer Support, Weight Status, Gender, Age, and Being a Perpetrator of Bullying in Physical Education

When presenting the profile of a perpetrator of bullying in physical education, it should be noted that according to the ETMD, different factors cause students to use violence against their peers (Cicchetti & Lynch, 1993; Overstreet & Mazza, 2003). Bullying in physical education often takes place within a peer-group setting (Mierzwinski et al., 2019), and peer support (or lack thereof) given to the perpetrator may support or inhibit their behavior.

Physical education often values masculine ideals of being strong, fast, and powerful (Wiltshire et al., 2017). The adolescents who meet these criteria receive high status and respect in the peer group hierarchy (Tischler & McCaughtry, 2011). If this position is achieved by students with certain personality predispositions, they may use this power imbalance over their less masculine and weaker peers to ridicule and bully them (Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017). Competitive environments, differences between the relative fitness of peers, and limited teacher supervision in locker-rooms create ideal conditions for trying to raise status among peers through verbal or physical bullying (Atkinson & Kehler, 2012). If the perpetrator gains support from at least a few peers, they will continue their behavior (Witvliet et al., 2010).

Little is known about the relationship between body weight and becoming a perpetrator of bullying in a physical education context. In the interviews of Vianna et al. (2015), students indicated that perpetrators of bullying tend to be taller and “larger” than the victims. Some studies have shown that stronger, socially dominant, and masculine adolescents were more likely to be dominant and aggressive in physical education (Mierzwinski et al., 2019). Interesting results were found by Tso et al. (2018). The authors reviewed 23 studies, finding that students who were overweight or obese were more physically aggressive than their normal-weight or underweight peers. However, their data relate to the entire school community; thus, it is yet to be determined whether a similar relationship exists in a physical education context.

Regarding gender, the literature on bullying indicates that the perpetrators of physical education were mostly boys (Savucu et al., 2017; Vianna et al., 2015). For example, in the study of Vianna et al. (2015), the majority of both boys and girls identified male gender as the main characteristic of the perpetrator of bullying in a physical education setting.

Analyzing the importance of age in bullying, in Poland, the incidence of being a perpetrator peaks during the middle-school years (Twardowska-Staszek et al., 2018). In physical education it has also been observed that violence and perpetration tendencies increased with age (Koc, 2017; Noret et al., 2015). Vianna et al. (2015) reported that according to respondents, the aggressors were older than the victimized students.

Purpose of the Present Study

There is lack of studies on bullying in physical education, including qualitative and quantitative studies (Jiménez-Barbero et al., 2020). More research is required because there is little knowledge of whether prevalence of bulling in physical education does reflect in the general school context. The content, structure, and methods used in physical education classes are specific and different from the rest of school subjects. Physical, verbal, and non-verbal contacts during physical education are also more frequent compared to other school subjects. Additionally, there are four teaching units of physical education per week in Poland. Consequently, physical education comprises a relatively high percentage of the student’s time at school during the week. Thus, there is a need to analyze separately the occurrence of bullying in physical education. Relationships studied in Poland may also occur in European countries with a similar culture and physical education system.

Our analysis applies not only to being a victim but also to being a perpetrator of bullying, which is rare in the literature. The relationship between peer support and bullying, that is included in our study, has not been taken into consideration in the previous study designs. Additionally, bullying in underweight individuals was rare analyzed. Usually, only normal weight, overweight or obesity categories were created. The results of research where underweight individuals were included in normal weight category might not show all aspects of associations between weight status and bullying.

The aim of the present study was to examine the associations between peer support, weight status, gender, age, and becoming the victim or perpetrator of physical, verbal, and social bullying among adolescents in physical education lessons. We hypothesized that in physical education (H₁) low peer support increases the probability of being a victim or perpetrator of physical, verbal, and social bullying regardless of the other variables, (H₂) underweight girls are perpetrators of bullying more often than their normal weight peers and underweight boys are victims more often than normal body weight ones, (H₃) excessive body weight students are the victims and perpetrators of bullying more often than individuals with normal body weight, (H₄) boys are the victims and perpetrators of bullying more often than girls, (H₅) perpetrators are older than their victims.

Method

Participants

This study included a total of 2, 848 individuals, 53% of whom were girls (Table 1). Participants were ranging in age from 14 to 16 years (M = 15.03, SD = 0.89) and were recruited from 12 junior high schools in Poznań (Poland). Poznań is one of the biggest cities in Poland, with approximately 550, 000 inhabitants.

Table 1.

Basic Characteristic of the Participants.

Variable	Total		Girls		Boys
	n	%	n	%	n	%
Total	2, 848	100	1, 512	53.1	1, 336	46.9
Age
14 years	861	30.2	462	30.6	399	29.9
15 years	950	33.4	510	33.7	440	32.9
16 years	1, 037	36.4	540	35.7	497	37.2
Weight status
Underweight	266	9.4	179	11.9	87	6.5
Normal weight	2, 125	74.6	1, 110	73.4	1, 015	76.0
Overweight	308	10.8	150	9.9	158	11.8
Obesity	149	5.2	73	4.8	76	5.7
Peers support
Low	409	14.4	201	13.3	208	15.6
Medium	746	26.2	359	23.7	387	29.0
High	1, 693	59.4	952	63.0	741	55.4
Victim
Physical	438	15.5	107	7.1	331	24.8
Verbal	496	17.4	169	11.2	327	24.5
Social	550	19.3	255	16.9	295	22.1
Perpetrator
Physical	598	20.1	173	11.4	425	31.8
Verbal	666	23.4	238	15.7	428	32.0
Social	632	22.2	279	18.5	353	26.4

Procedure

The sample was selected based on one-stage cluster sampling. Once the headteachers of the schools had agreed to participate in the study, written consent from one parent or legal guardian and assent from all participants were obtained, using an active consent method. In the schools, 2, 980 parents or legal guardians were asked to agree to their children taking part in the study and 2, 911 gave their permission. Questionnaires with missing data were dropped from the statistical analysis. Finally, data from 2, 848 surveys were included in the study. The research protocol was approved by the local bioethical committee of the Karol Marcinkowski University of Medical Sciences in Poznań.

The level of peer support and whether students had been a victim or perpetrator of bullying in physical education were determined by means of a questionnaire survey. The questionnaires were completed by the students in their schools during classes. Students were assured of the anonymity and confidentiality of the study and were told that all information provided would be used for research purposes only. Students were asked to sit separately to prevent discussion or helping when filling in the questionnaire. The average time taken to complete the questionnaire was half an hour. After completing the questionnaires, the students had their body mass and weight measured in a separate room; these values were written on the questionnaire form, after which, the students placed the completed questionnaire in a box. Three experienced academic researchers conducted the study.

Measures

Weight Status, Body Height, and BMI

The students’ weight (using a Seca 761 scale) and height (using an anthropometer) were measured in light clothing (without shoes). Based on the obtained data, the BMI (defined as the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters [kg/m²]) of the students was determined. On the basis of this latter parameter, four groups of BMI status were created (a) underweight, (b) normal weight, (c) overweight, and (d) obese. Age-and gender-adjusted body weights were based on the BMI cutoff values for children and adolescents proposed by Cole et al. (2000, 2007).

Peer Support During Physical Education

Peer support during physical education was assessed using the Teacher and Classmate Support Scale (Torsheim et al., 2000), modified by Kantanista et al. (2013). The scale contains five items, that is, “Other students accept me as I am”, and “Most of the students in my class are kind and helpful”. Participants had to assess, on a 5-point Likert scale, to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the items in the context of physical education lessons, with a possible total score of 25 points. We categorized the support from classmates using the individual scores normalized to a sten scale (Cattell, 1965), where individuals with a sten score of 1–4 were classified as receiving low peer support, those with a score of 5–6 as having medium support, and those with a sten score of 7–10 as receiving high support. According to Torsheim et al. (2000), test-retest correlation were 0.74 for the original classmate subscale. In a study of Polish adolescents, the internal consistency of the scale was established using Cronbach’s alpha test, where α = 0.87 (Kantanista et al., 2013). In the present study, Cronbach’s alpha was α = 0.81.

Bullying

Participants were asked to report how many times they had been bullied during physical education in the past two months and how often they had taken part in bullying another student (or other students) in the same period. The response options were arranged along a 3-point frequency-based scale: never, rarely, and often. Students were asked about specific types of bullying: 1.

Physical. “Have you hit, kicked, pushed, shoved around another student?”

Verbal. “Have you called another student (s) mean names, made fun of him or her, or threatened him or her?”

Social. “Have you excluded him or her from a group during exercising, ignored him or her, made hostile faces or gestures against him or her?”

These questions were based on the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children bullying measure, which demonstrated structural validity for measuring student bullying perpetration and victimization behaviors (Roberson & Renshaw, 2018). We applied the questions to the context of physical education classes. In the present study, according to Mazur (2015) a participant answering “rarely” or “often” meant they had been a victim or perpetrator of bullying in the last two months. Internal consistency of the questions was established using Cronbach’s alpha test, where α = 0.79 for being a victim and α = 0.83 for being a perpetrator of bullying.

Analysis

All variables were presented by number and percentage distribution. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used (likelihood ratio chi-square test [LR], odds ratio [OR] and confidence interval [CI] 95%) to investigate the relationship between being a victim or being a perpetrator of physical, verbal, and social bullying (dependent variables, “yes”classification) and gender, age, weight status, and peer support (independent variables). The threshold for statistical significance for the inclusion of an independent variable in the multivariate regression model was set at p < .05.All calculations were made using Statistica 13.0 (StatSoft, Inc.).

Results

A total of 2, 848 students were studied: 1, 512 girls and 1, 336 boys aged 14 (30.2%), 15 (33.4%), and 16 (36.4%) years. Table 1 presents a statistical description of the study group, including all the examined variables. Based on BMI, 74.6% of adolescents presented normal body weight (73.4% of girls and 76.0% of boys), 10.8% were overweight (9.9% of girls and 11.8% of boys), 5.2% were obese (4.8% of girls and 5.7% of boys), and 9.4% were underweight (11.9% of girls and 6.5% of boys). In terms of peer support, 59.4% of students received high support (63.0% of girls and 55.4% of boys), 26.2% received medium support (23.7% of girls and 29.0% of boys), and 14.4% received low support (13.3% of girls and 15.6% of boys).

Victims of physical bullying comprised 15.5% of participants (7.1% of girls and 24.8% of boys). Verbal bullying was experienced by 17.4% of the students (11.2% of girls and 24.5% of boys) and social bullying by 19.3% (16.9% of girls and 22.1% of boys). While physical bullying against peers was committed by 20.1% of the students (11.4% of girls and 31.8% of boys), 23.4% engaged in verbal bullying (15.7% of girls and 32.0% of boys), and 22.2% engaged in social bullying (18.5% of girls and 26.4% of boys).

Results of the logistic regressions for being a physical, verbal, and social victim of bullying are presented in Table 2.As shown, boys were more than twice as likely as girls to be victims of physical bullying (OR = 2.06; 95% CI 1.83, 2.32). In addition, students with low peer support (OR = 1.58; 95% CI 1.33, 1.89) were more likely to be victims of physical bullying. Pupils with low peer support (OR = 2.22; 95% CI 1.89, 2.60), boys (OR = 1.58; 95% CI 1.42, 1.76), overweight pupils (OR = 1.39; 95% CI 1.08, 1.79), and those 14 years of age (OR = 1.21; 95% CI 1.05, 1.40) were more likely to be victims of verbal bullying. Students with low or medium support (OR = 2.91; 95% CI 2.49, 3.39; OR = 1.27; 95% CI 1.11, 1.46, respectively), obese pupils (OR = 1.60; 95% CI 1.19, 2.17), those 15 years of age (OR = 1.18;95% CI 1.03, 1.36), and boys (OR = 1.12; 95% CI 1.01, 1.24) were more likely to be victims of social bullying.

Table 2.

Results of Multivariate Logistic Regression of Being a Victim of Physical, Verbal, and Social Bullying in Physical Education Lessons.

Variable	LR	OR	95% CI		p
Variable	LR	OR	LL	UL
Physical victim
Gender	166.64				< .001
Boys		2.06	1.83	2.32	< .001
Peer support	57.30				< .001
Low support		1.58	1.33	1.89	< .001
Medium support		1.09	0.94	1.28	.258
Age	10.32				.006
14 years		1.16	0.99	1.35	.059
15 years		1.11	0.95	1.28	.183
Verbal victim
Peer support	182.41				< .001
Low support		2.22	1.89	2.60	< .001
Medium support		1.13	0.98	1.31	.097
Gender	75.48				< .001
Boys		1.58	1.42	1.76	< .001
Weight status	9.04				.029
Normal weight		0.87	0.73	1.04	.121
Overweight		1.39	1.08	1.79	.010
Obesity		0.87	0.62	1.23	.431
Age	7.04				.029
14 years		1.21	1.05	1.40	.011
15 years		0.95	0.83	1.11	.532
Social victim
Peer support	374.83				< .001
Low support		2.91	2.49	3.39	< .001
Medium support		1.27	1.11	1.46	.001
Weight status	21.69				< .001
Normal weight		0.71	0.60	0.84	< .001
Overweight		1.21	0.87	1.44	.369
Obesity		1.60	1.19	2.17	.002
Age	8.64				.013
14 years		1.03	0.89	1.19	.683
15 years		1.18	1.03	1.36	.021
Gender	4.70				.030
Boys		1.12	1.01	1.24	.030

Note . LR = likelihood ratio chi-square test; CI = confidence intervals; LL = lower limit; UL = upper limit.

Table 3 presents the results of logistic regression analyses that show which pupils were most often the perpetrators of physical, verbal, and social bullying in physical education settings.

Table 3.

Results of Multivariate Logistic Regressions of Being a Perpetrator of Physical, Verbal, and Social Bullying in Physical Education Lessons.

Variable	LR	OR	95% CI		p
Variable	LR	OR	LL	UL
Physical perpetrator
Gender	176.12				< .001
Boys		1.89	1.72	2.09	< .001
Peer support	14.36				.001
Low support		1.37	1.16	1.62	< .001
Medium support		0.87	0.75	1.01	.074
Age	7.96				.019
15 years		0.96	0.84	1.10	.523
16 years		1.20	1.05	1.36	.006
Verbal perpetrator
Gender	101.82				< .001
Boys		1.58	1.44	1.73	< .001
Peers support	6.37				.041
Low support		1.14	0.97	1.34	.108
Medium support		1.02	0.89	1.18	.743
Social perpetrator
Gender	23.95				< .001
Boys		1.25	1.14	1.37	< .001
Peers support	16.93				< .001
Low support		1.35	1.15	1.58	< .001
Medium support		0.91	0.79	1.05	.203
Age	7.04				.030
15 years		1.12	0.99	1.27	.079
16 years		1.07	0.94	1.21	.305

Note. LR = likelihood ratio chi-square test; CI = confidence intervals; LL = lower limit; UL = upper limit.

Boys (OR = 1.89;95% CI 1.72, 2.09), pupils with low peer support (OR = 1.37;95% CI 1.16, 1.62), and those 16 years of age (OR = 1.20;95% CI 1.05, 1.36) were the main perpetrators of physical bullying. Perpetrators of verbal bullying were also more likely to be boys (OR = 1.58;95% CI 1.44, 1.73). Additionally, boys (OR = 1.25;95% CI 1.14, 1.37) and pupils with low peer support (OR = 1.35;95% CI 1.15, 1.58) were more likely to be perpetrators of social bullying.

Discussion

We found that low peer support predicted the likelihood of being a victim or perpetrator of physical, verbal, and social bullying in physical education irrespective of weight status, gender, and age, which confirmed our first hypothesis. In contrast to what we expected, underweight girls were not more often perpetrators and underweight boys were not more often victims of bullying in comparison to students with normal body weight. Partly in line with our assumptions, the probability of being a victim of verbal bullying was only increased by being overweight, while obese pupils were more often victims of social bullying. Contrary to our assumptions, excessive body weight did not increase the likelihood of being the perpetrator of bullying. As we hypothesized, boys were victims or perpetrators of bullying more often than girls; while victims were mainly younger, and perpetrators were primarily older adolescents.

Peer Support and Being a Victim or Perpetrator of Bullying in Physical Education

The results of the present study indicate that low peer support increases the likelihood of being a victim of physical, verbal, and social bullying in physical education regardless of the other variables. Thus, these data demonstrate the role of peer support in physical education. Only a few previous studies have analyzed the relationships between peer relations and bullying in the physical education context. Additionally, these papers used fewer variables and less advanced models (e.g., O’Connor & Graber, 2014; Wiltshire et al., 2017) than the present study.

In analyzing why adolescents with low peer support are more likely to be the victims of physical, verbal, and social bullying in physical education, it should be noted that according to ETMD there are different factors in macro-, exo-, micro-, and ontogenic level which cause a person to be deprived of the support of other students. Perpetrators very often choose the weakest person in a group as their target; this enables bullies to demonstrate their advantage and power to other students (Salmivalli, 2010). If the victim is unpopular, disliked, or excluded, their peers will not defend them against the bully (Levy & Gumpel, 2018). Therefore, perpetrators choose victims with low peer support because they do not have to be afraid that someone will protect their victim.

Our investigation also shows that students with low peer support, more often than others, are the perpetrators of physical and social bullying. This is contrary to most studies, which have shown that perpetrators were usually students with high peer support (e.g., Sainio et al., 2012). Our results in this respect could be interpreted in two ways. On the one hand, in the present study, the perpetrators could lose peer support because of their bullying behaviors. It has been suggested that bullies use violence to obtain a high, powerful, and dominant position within a peer group (Salmivalli & Peets, 2009) ; however, as a result of their aggression, perpetrators may stop being liked and lose peer support, even if other students do not openly oppose them (Levy & Gumpel, 2018). On the other hand, disliked students with low peer support may bully others to enhance their status within peer groups and it has been suggested that disliked adolescents might use bullying to become respected (Witvliet et al., 2010). Being disliked and perceived as popular are not necessarily contradictory (Estell et al., 2008). Furthermore, perpetrators of bullying might be adolescents with low peer support who were themselves the victims of violence (so-called bully-victims) and used violence in self-defense (Salmivalli, 2010). However, these relationships were not analyzed in the present study.

When analyzing the relationship between low peer support and being a perpetrator of social bullying, it should be noted that this form of bullying is indirect violence in which the perpetrator often does not reveal himself (Olweus, 1993). Perhaps in the present studystudents with low peer support independently from weight status, gender, and age, used social bullying because it avoids direct confrontation.

Weight Status and Being a Victim or Perpetrator of Bullying in Physical Education

We observed that the probability of being a victim of verbal and social bullying increased respectively in the case of overweight and obese students. These results are in line with other findings that described overweight and obese adolescents as being bullied in the school community (e.g., Mazur et al., 2017) and physical education settings (Trout & Graber, 2009) irrespective of the conditions of other ecosystems. It is especially intensified by the fact that participation in physical education involves the exposure of an individual’s body and physical abilities in front of their peers and teachers, and as a result, overweight and obese students often experience weight-bias bullying (Ehlert et al., 2015).

Some studies have revealed that underweight boys become victims of bullying in the school community (Gerdin & Larsson, 2018; Griffiths et al., 2006) and in physical education (Jachyra, 2016). However, our results did not confirm these findings. In line with the literature, we had assumed that underweight girls (Griffiths et al., 2006) and overweight students in general (Tso et al., 2018) would be the perpetrators of bullying in physical education more often than their peers with normal body weight; however, our hypothesis in this respect was not confirmed. Taking into account the ETMD (Cicchetti & Lynch, 1993; Overstreet & Mazza, 2003), it is likely that there were other factors that influenced these relationships, which need further research.

Gender and Being a Victim or Perpetrator of Bullying in Physical Education

Our research findings illustrate that on the ontogenic level (Cicchetti & Lynch, 1993; Overstreet & Mazza, 2003) being a victim or perpetrator of bullying in a physical education setting was more common among boys. Similarly, according to Sainio et al. (2012) and Savucu et al. (2017), boys were mainly perpetrators and victims of physical, verbal, and social bullying, especially against someone of their own gender. In physical education, this may be the effect of how boys construct and define their masculinity in relationships with other boys (Jachyra, 2016). Since physical strength is a characteristic that defines male peer status (Smith & Brain, 2000), boys use physical and verbal forms of bullying more often than girls. This tendency may also be related to biological factors; the research of van Bokhoven et al. (2006) has shown that during the pubertal years, different forms of aggressive behavior in boys were positively related to levels of testosterone, which increases significantly during adolescence.

Some authors have argued that the greater prevalence of bullying among boys compared to girls is conditioned at the macrosystem level and culturally determined (e. g., Athanasiades & Deliyanni-Kouimtzis, 2010). Girls are socialized to be more passive and social, while boys are allowed to be aggressive and dominant (Nixon et al., 2020). Moreover, physical education programs reflect this social construct: competition and direct contact-based physical activities, which might evoke aggressive and bullying behaviors, are more commonly used in male physical education (Koc, 2017).

Age and Being a Victim or Perpetrator of Bullying in Physical Education

We observed in our study that being the victim of bullying (both physical and verbal) was more likely among younger than older students. This aligns with other studies concerning bullying in physical education (e.g., Vianna et al., 2015) and other areas of an adolescent’s life in Poland (Mazur et al., 2017), which have found that direct bullying is more common among younger students. This might result from socialization processes and the ability to control emotional impulses and aggression increasing with age (Mierzwinski et al., 2019).

Age is a predictor of becoming the perpetrator of physical bullying, with older students more likely to be bullies (Griffiths et al., 2006). Bullying is based on an imbalance of power between the perpetrator and victim (Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017), and among the many factors associated with this imbalance, age may be a source of a perpetrator’s pre-eminence since being older gives higher status within the school hierarchy. In line with this, the present study found that older pupils were the perpetrators of bullying more often than younger ones.

Forms of Victimization and Perpetration in Physical Education

As demonstrated by our findings for the total sample, the most widespread form of bullying experienced by the victims was social, followed by verbal and then physical bullying. These results are new and show the difference between forms of bullying in physical education and reported by Twardowska-Staszek et al. (2018) forms of victimization among Polish adolescents in the wider school community. Authors noted that the most common was verbal than social and at least physical bullying. Results of our study are also in contrast with studies concerning physical education (Vianna et al., 2015), in which the most common form of bullying among victims was verbal. The present study suggests that the advantage of social bullying (e.g., exclusion, isolation) over verbal and physical bullying may arise from the teacher’s presence and supervision during the lesson (Mierzwinski et al., 2019), and sporting values, that is to say, game regulations that prevent direct confrontation and insulting players of the opposing team (Sánchez-Alcaraz et al., 2020).

In the presented study, the highest percentage of perpetrators in physical education admitted to the verbal, then social and physical form of bullying. In general, Polish school environment verbal bullying perpetration has also been the most common (Kuntsche et al., 2006). Comparing our results with the most recent surveys among Polish adolescents (Twardowska-Staszek et al., 2018), it can be observed that the percentage of perpetrators of physical, verbal, and social bullying in physical education was higher than in the general school community. This confirms the fact that in the specific conditions of physical education lessons, being the perpetrator or the victim of bullying may manifest differently in comparison to other areas of the school environment.

Limitations and Strengths

This study has some limitations that need consideration in future research. First, peer support and being the victim or perpetrator of bullying in physical education were measured using self-assessment methods; therefore, participants’ subjective interpretation of questions could influence the results. The next limitation relates to self-reported data, including differences between how students respond and how they actually behave. Moreover, it would have been valuable to specify who among the bullying perpetrators was also a victim; establishing “bully-victim” as a separate category could have helped to interpret the results obtained in the research.

Study sample were 14–16 years old adolescents only from one city and only from public schools. Therefore, our findings should be interpreted with caution. Responses may not be representative of the nationwide or global population of adolescents at a different age and from the rural environment. We did not investigate race, ethnicity, and sociodemographic variables such as family material status and structure, number of siblings and city size, school location. A larger and more diverse sample would allow us to better examine the relations shown in this study. However, although different subgroups could have different characteristics, registered associations may not necessarily differ.

The key strength of this paper is its expanded exploration of the bullying problem within the physical education context. We designed a model to examine the prevalence of bullying that included several variables (peer support, weight status, gender, and age) and used a cluster sampling method and a large study population of adolescents. We also analyzed physical, verbal, and social forms of bullying not only among the victims but also among the perpetrators. It should also be noted that the direct measurement of weight and height in this study allowed for accurate BMI calculations.

Conclusions

The presented results concern a large sample of Polish adolescents; however, they may indicate that, regardless of the diversity of ecosystems, being the perpetrator or victim of bullying in physical education may depend on the peer support. Especially it may be similar in other European countries, which are culturally related and have a parallel system of physical education, teacher formation (Elgar et al., 2015; Mazur, 2015) and sports-oriented curriculums (Hardman, 2008). Regardless of individual differences such as socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, language, nationality, religion, and etc. On adolescents might face similar bullying perpetration and victimization in physical education.

Based on the results of this study and with regard to the objectives, we conclude that of the analyzed variables, low peer support is a strong risk factor for physical, verbal, and social bullying in physical education. Students with low peer support can be not only victims but also perpetrators of bullying. In terms of new research avenues stemming from this study, physical, verbal and especially social bullying occur among Polish adolescents in compulsory physical education and its percentage is higher than in other areas of the school community. Moreover, the identified correlations between peer support, body weight, gender, and age, and the victimization or perpetration of bullying in physical education, enable us to suggest that intervention programs focusing on just one of these variables may also influence the others. However, peer support seems to be most important among them all.

We conclude that more attention should be given to overweight adolescents to protect them from becoming victims of bullying in physical education. Moreover, our findings show that boys more than girls perpetrated and suffered from bullying and that more attention should be paid to preventing the use of violence by older adolescents against younger ones in physical education lessons.

Future Directions

It is important for physical education teachers to recognize the peer relationships in class and implement appropriate interventions and teaching content (e.g., plays and games) that develop peer support among students (e.g., Ross & Horner, 2014). Moreover, school policies should support physical education teachers in improving their skills in this area. The entire school community should be involved in efforts to promote the social climate, such as positive behavioral interventions and support, which have also been shown to reduce bullying (Waasdorp et al., 2012). Creating a climate that fosters the development of strong peer support might protect adolescents from becoming victims—and perpetrators—of bullying.

Researchers and practitioners in Poland and across the word should look for all factors that contribute to the loss of peer support among adolescents. Specifically, physical education programs should be aimed at restoring unpopular, lonely, or rejected students to the class community. This might play an important role in the process of decreasing the frequency of social bullying, and may be crucial in stopping the “bullying circle”.

Our results also emphasize the need to pay greater attention to groups of boys and younger adolescents who are overweight, as they are most often the victims of bullying in physical education. Finally, future work should incorporate more racial and ethnic diversity as well as variety in the region and type of schools.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the directors of the schools, teachers, and children who took part in the study.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Joanna Borowiec

Author Biographies

Joanna Borowiec, PhD, is a lecturer in the Department of Physical Education and Lifelong Sports, Poznan University of Physical Education. Her research interests relate to physical education and relationships of physical activity and physical, mental and social functioning of children and adolescents.

Magdalena Król-Zielińska, PhD, agraduate of psychology and physical education, is a lecturer in the Department of Physical Education and Lifelong Sports, Poznan University of Physical Education. Her research interest focusses on methods of measuring physical activity and psychosocial determinants of physical activity.

Wiesław Osiński is an emeritus professor in the Department of Physical Activity and Health Promotion Science, Poznan University of Physical Education. He is vice president of International Association of Sport Kinetics and vice chairman of Committee of Rehabilitation, Physical Culture and Social Integration of Polish Academy of Sciences. His research interests are physical activity and aging, falls among elderly, overweight and obesity.

Adam Kantanista is an associate professor and head of the Department of Physical Education and Lifelong Sports, Poznan University of Physical Education. His research interest focusses on associations among physical activity level, physical education participation, training of different sports and body image, and prevalence of underweight or obesity in children and adolescents.

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