Factors Driving the Occurrence of Bullying Phenomenon in Schools: Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

The phenomenon of bullying in Indonesia shows an alarming increase, both in schools and online, with serious impacts on the mental health, social development, and academic achievement of victims. This study aims to identify factors that encourage bullying using literature review and bibliometric analysis. Data were obtained through the Publish or Perish application from Google Scholar and Scopus sources with the keywords "bullying" and "factors driving bullying" for the period 2017–2025. Analysis using VOSviewer was conducted to map keyword co-words and citation networks. The results show that there are five main factors that influence the occurrence of bullying, namely: family factors, peers, mass media, social environment, and self-esteem. Unconducive parenting, peer pressure, exposure to violent content in the media, the normalization of violence in the social environment, and low self-esteem are the dominant drivers of bullying behavior in children and adolescents. These findings emphasize that bullying prevention requires comprehensive intervention through synergy between family, school, community, and media monitoring. Efforts to create a safe and supportive environment are essential to reduce the number of bullying cases and protect children's psychological development.