Social Explanation of School Bullying (A Case Study on Sari City s High School Students)

School Bullying is a complex, widespread issue involving students for years however this psychosocial phenomenon has gained attention among researchers from 1980s. Most of the researches on bullying are mainly done by psychological perspective, thus this study tries to highlight the social factors associated with bullying. Given the aim of the study, three of the most famous criminology theories: General theory of crime, Differential association theory and General strain theory (GST) were chosen as the theoretical framework and three types of bullying (verbal, physical & social) were considered. Based on the theories It has been hypothesized that there is a positive correlation between low self control and bullying, differential association and bullying and general strain and bullying. The population of the study consists of all the high school students from first to third grade in Sari's urban area. A total of 410 persons were selected by stratified random sampling proportional to size. The results showed that 7.6 percent of the respondents never involved in bullying. 65.4 percent of students have bullying in low level, 22.2 percent in moderate and 4.9 percent of those in high extents. Also boys bully more than girls. Multiple regression analysis results also show that the variables low Self-control, differential association, and general strain are the strongest predictors of bullying.