Physical education has traditionally been one of the most eagerly awaited classes of the school day, since it lets students get out of the classroom, move around, and interact with their classmates in a different way — conditions that are conducive to learning values such as camaraderie and cooperation. However, the physical exposure and the dynamics of interaction, comparison, and competition that the class can entail still make some students uneasy, and, in settings where bullying occurs, turn it into a potentially unsafe space. In this context, the responses of those who witness bullying are crucial to either stopping or enabling it, and motivation and responsibility are key factorsdetermining whether they adopt active roles.
This is the conclusion of a study of more than 1,300 students ages 10 to 18 conducted by Rafael Clavero Prados, Javier Murillo Moraño, Rafael Zapata Lamana, and Juan De Dios Benítez Sillero, with the Sport and Physical Education for Personal and Social Development research group (GIDEPSO) in the Department of Specific Didactics at the University of Córdoba. To find out how bullying relates to motivation in physical education, they asked students "about their experience with bullying they had suffered or witnessed," while also assessing their motivation toward physical education and their levels of personal and social responsibility, explains researcher Rafael Clavero Prados. The results of the study, published in the journal Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, focus on the role of bystanders and link their responses, whether active or passive, to their interest in sports: students who are more motivated to participate in physical education also show greater personal responsibility, which leads them to step in actively when faced with situations they consider unfair. At the other end of the spectrum, students who have been bullied show lower levels of motivation toward the subject.
Actively defending victims, however, takes more than a willingness to step in. For this to happen, "students must perceive themselves as capable of acting and feel a personal responsibility to do so," the authors argue, pointing to the importance of working at both the individual and social levels to help students recognize how their behavior either perpetuates unfair situations or helps stop them. Researcher Javier Murillo Moraño thus underscores the importance of "developing teaching models that increase social responsibility, which is associated with students more actively standing up for victims." For this reason, the GIDEPSO group maintains that teaching responsibility should be part of a broad bullying prevention strategy that also addresses student motivation, peer relationships, and the responses of those who witness these situations.
Learning to get along
The study is part of a series of research projects that GIDEPSO is carrying out to give teachers tools to combat bullying and to turn both physical education classes and youth sports into safe spaces where young people learn to get along. "The findings are important because they provide new evidence and help us complement the intervention programs we design for this purpose," explains Juan De Dios Benítez Sillero, the group's principal investigator. One example is the PrebullPE program, a hands-on model that the research group has already brought into classrooms and that addresses identifying bullying, managing emotions, and fostering social skills for a better school climate. In this way physical education can become a space for learning not only to cooperate and compete, but also to respect others, take on responsibilities, and stand up to injustice.
Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy
Data/statistical analysis
People
Understanding bullying and motivation in physical education: a serial mediation model through personal and social responsibility
18-Aug-2026