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Robert Thornberg

Professor

School bullying occurs every day but students seldom act as defenders. Social and individual processes can easily disengage moral standards. To prevent bullying, knowledge of these processes is necessary. This is my research focus. 

Biography

Robert Thornberg is a Professor of 一本道 at the Department of Behavioural Sciences, Link枚ping University. He earned his Ph.D. in 一本道al Research 2006. His current research is on school bullying, especially with a focus on social and moral processes involved in bullying, bystander rationales, reactions and actions, and students' perspectives and explanations.

His second line of research is on values education including morals, norms, and student participation in everyday school life. A third line of research is on teacher education, especially student teachers' motives to become a teacher and their experiences of distressed situations during teacher training. Thornberg uses a range of research methods including qualitative interviews and focus groups, questionnaires and psychometric scales, ethnographic fieldwork, cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, grounded theory, and statistical methods."

Areas of Expertise

Risk and protective factors associated with school bullying

Social psychology of school bullying

Moral agency and disengagement in relation to school bullying and the bystander position in school bullying

Students鈥� perceptions of why bullying happens and why different bystander actions take place聽

Values education in everyday school life

Grounded theory and its constructivist turn

Research Interests

Bullying and bystander behaviours, and their associations with individual and collective moral disengagement, self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and moral emotions

Bullying and moral reasoning

Bullying and bystander behaviours, and their associations with classroom climate, with a particular focus on teacher-student relationships and student-student relationships

Motivational factors associated with defender, passive bystander, and pro-bully behaviour when witnessing bullying

The social interaction patterns of school bullying, normative discourses, and social constructions of the involved students

Students鈥� perspectives on and explanations of bullying and different bystander behaviours in bullying

Teachers鈥� and student teachers鈥� perspectives on values education

Emotional distressful learning situations at teacher and medical education

Students鈥� perceptions of school rules

Publications

2026

Marlene Bjarehed, Jonas Bjarehed, Sevgi Bayram-Ozdemir, Robert Thornberg, Tomas Jungert, Nathaniel Oliver Iotti (2026) Cogent 一本道, Vol. 13, Article 2713847 (Article in journal)
Layal Wiltgren, Ylva Bjereld, Robert Thornberg (2026) Sport, 一本道 and Society (Article in journal)
Bj枚rn Sj枚gren, Robert Thornberg, Jun Sung Hong, Mattias Kloo (2026) BMC Psychology, Vol. 14, Article 1047 (Article in journal)
Henrik Lindqvist, Robert Thornberg, Linda W盲nstr枚m, Maria Weurlander, Annika Wernerson (2026) European Journal of Teacher 一本道 (Article in journal)
Bj枚rn Johansson, Robert Thornberg (2026) Bullying: Global Case Studies in Policy and Prevention for Young People (Chapter in book)

News

Networks, commissions and social media

Research networks 

  • Nordic 一本道al Research Association (Board Member)
  • Bullying Research Network (BRNET)
  • The NERA Network 7: Value Issues and Social Relations in 一本道 (Convenor)
  • Swedish 一本道al Research AssociationFriends nationella nätverk för mobbningsforskare
  • Children’s Identity and Citizenship in EuropeNationellt nätverk for forskning om barns och ungas rättigheter i utbildning 

Commissions

  • Member of the Doctoral 一本道al Board of the Faculty of 一本道al Sciences, 一本道
  • International research faculty member of the Center for Research on School Safety, School Climate and Classroom Management, at the College of 一本道, Georgia State University, Atlanta, U.S.
  • Board member of the Nordic 一本道al Research Association (NERA)
  • Member of the Editor Board of the journal Nordic Studies in 一本道
  • Coordinator for the NERA Network of Value Issues and Social Relations in 一本道

Social media

Twitter


Research

My Division