The objective of this scoping review is to understand the extent and type of evidence of the connection between children experiencing or witnessing bullying or violence by and them becoming (offline or online) peer bullying perpetrators, building on the social cognition theory. The review includes 88 peer-reviewed studies, primarily from China and the USA. The results show that there is a significant connection between adults harming children – although it is measured under different concepts such as child, parental or family abuse, child or family maltreatment, harsh, severe or punitive parenting, corporal punishment, or children witnessing violence in their home and in their community – and children becoming cyber or traditional bullies of their peers.

The results show that there is a significant connection between adults harming children – although it is measured under different concepts such as child, parental or family abuse, child or family maltreatment, harsh, severe or punitive parenting, corporal punishment, or children witnessing violence in their home and in their community – and children becoming cyber or traditional bullies of their peers. There is significantly more evidence connecting parental or family behaviour to bullying perpetration, than the behaviour of adults of authority in the children’s lives, indicating a large research gap. No study investigated together bullying by adults in the loved circle, bullying adults of authority, witnessing violence in the home and the community and cyber and offline bullying perpetration. While the connection of adult behaviour impacting child peer bullying perpetration seems clear from the included literature, the research gap concerning bullying perpetrated by adults of authority and studies from Europe and Africa is prevalent.