2025 Theses Doctoral

Gender as a Context for Bullying: A Sociological Approach to Bullying at the Country, Classroom, and Individual Levels

Wang, Encan

Patriarchy and Bullying: A Cross-National Analysis of 23 Education Systems

Adolescent bullying is increasingly understood as behaviors that reflect and reinforce prevailing norms, cultures, and power structures within broader social contexts, yet the role of patriarchy in shaping bullying dynamics remains underexplored. Drawing on data from the 2016 International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (N=89,345 adolescents, across 23 education systems), I examine how the frequency and targets of peer victimization are structured by group adherence to patriarchy at multiple levels.

I specifically consider two manifestations of patriarchy: societal-level gender inequality and classroom-aggregated patriarchal beliefs. Results show that adolescents in societies with higher levels of gender inequality experience increased rates of bullying, and bullying is more prevalent in classrooms where students collectively hold stronger patriarchal beliefs. Adherence to patriarchy is especially salient in predicting the frequency of bullying against girls and overt forms of bullying like physical violence. Despite being structurally favored in patriarchy, the victimization risk of boys is also elevated in more patriarchal peer groups, in line with theories that enforcement of hegemonic masculinity provokes aggression and often involves attacking femininity in boys. Taken together, these findings suggest that gender inequality and patriarchal beliefs effectively explain variation in bullying victimization rates across contexts. Challenging unequal gender power relations and norms at both the societal and peer group level can have significant benefits in reducing adolescent bullying.

Vulnerability or Agency? The Link Between Gender Nonconformity and Self-Efficacy

Do adolescents who deviate from traditional gender roles exhibit higher or lower self-efficacy—the confidence in one’s ability to achieve personal goals? Existing studies suggest that gender nonconformity often elicits peer denigration, which may undermine one’s self-efficacy. However, it may also signify high self-efficacy as it reflects the agency to assert one’s identity despite societal pressures. Drawing on survey data collected from an inland province of China (N = 2,008), this study finds that gender nonconformity is associated with lower self-efficacy overall; yet, the effect size is weak, and the relationship exhibits strong non-linearity. Adolescents identifying as “equally feminine and masculine” report notably high self-efficacy.

Exploratory analyses reveal two key mechanisms that might link gender nonconformity to self-efficacy. First, gender nonconforming students experience increased covert bullying and reduced peer validation, which significantly predict lower self-efficacy. Second, these students often reject traditional gender role beliefs and feel less pressure to conform—reflecting agency rooted in personal conviction and self-acceptance, though not directly tied to higher self-efficacy. Educators and policymakers should develop interventions to address covert bullying and strengthen social support for gender nonconforming students. At the same time, it is crucial to move beyond viewing gender nonconformity solely as a source of vulnerability and recognize that adolescents may actively engage in nonconformity as an expression of agency and resistance to social gender expectations.

Explaining Gender Policing among Adolescents: The Role of Peers, Teachers, and Personal Gender Role Beliefs

The enforcement of gender norms among adolescents, or gender policing, frequently involves aggression and denigration toward norm violators. Despite decades of research documenting how adolescents experience social sanctions for being gender nonconforming, why certain individuals are more inclined to police gender norms against their peers remains unclear. Do people police gender norms because they believe their teachers or peers endorse the norms? Or do they act based on internalized beliefs that view gender conformity as a moral imperative? Drawing on survey data from 2,008 students in China, this study shows that personal gender role beliefs are the strongest predictor of adolescent engagement in gender policing, while perceived teacher gender expectations have minimal influence. Critically, regardless of their own gender role beliefs, adolescents are more likely to police gender norms when they perceive their peers to hold rigid gender role expectations. Additionally, this study reveals that boys engage more intensely in gender policing than girls, particularly against gender nonconforming boys, suggesting that the enforcement of gender norms is more rigid among adolescent boys. Efforts to reduce gender policing must address both individual-level gender role beliefs and collective normative expectations, while recognizing the different ways boys and girls experience and enforce gender norms.