Abstract

Background. Despite the prevalence of school bullying in Russia and data on the severity of the consequences for its participants, the Russian-language scientifi c literature lacks a systematic understanding of the prerequisites for bullying, which could serve as the basis for practical developments aimed at preventing bullying in educational organizations. This article aims to fill this gap and systematize longitudinal, regression and meta-analytic studies of predictors of bullying, cyberbullying and victimization.

Objective. The purpose of the article is to systematize data on predictors of school bullying and to model its escalation in school environment. To achieve this goal, a search, selection and theoretical analysis of a number of articles published over the past 5 years was carried out

Results. The performed theoretical analysis allows us to model the development of school bullying. The complex of individual-personal and environmental factors that increase the risk of bullying and victimization includes external behavioral and internal manifestations of schoolchildren, thoughts and judgements about themselves and others, social skills, personality traits, features of social contacts, perception of the school climate. Also, the risk factors can be attributed to a weak sense of belonging to school, a lack of support from peers and teachers, the peculiarity of social contacts and norms in the classroom. The peculiarities of upbringing and communication in the family and the attitude of parents of schoolchildren to aggression also play an important role in the emergence and escalation of bullying

Conclusion. The work carried out streamlines disparate ideas about the premises of bullying into a coherent picture that refl ects the complex nature of bullying predictors, and can be used as the basis for the development of preventive programs.