Mothers’ Creative Strategies for Addressing School Bullying: The Roles of Sociodemographic Characteristics, Bullying History, and Resilience

SYNOPSISObjective. Creativity among parents is a critical factor in managing the multifaceted challenges of parenthood, particularly when their child is a victim of school bullying. Creative parents may help their children develop skills to cope effectively and adaptively with bullying and perhaps even prevent further incidents. This study explores mothers’ creative strategies for addressing school bullying and examines factors related to those strategies, including mothers’ sociodemographic characteristics, history of bullying victimization, and resilience. Design. A total of 528 mothers of school-age children completed measures assessing creativity, bullying history, and resilience. Cluster analysis identified three groups of mothers based on their low, medium, and high levels of creativity. Results. Mothers with higher levels of education exhibited greater creativity. Mothers’ history of school bullying victimization had a negative effect on their creativity, whereas resilience positively affected it. Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that only education level and resilience were significant predictors of maternal creativity. Conclusions. These findings underscore the potential for integrating creative, parent-focused strategies into anti-bullying intervention programs.