‘It’s the parents’: re-presenting parents in school bullying research

Public discourse about school bullying is frequently underscored by debates about the relative roles and responsibilities of parents and schools in preventing bullying. Such debates are often characterised by a sense of recrimination, with blame apportioned according to perceived negligence. In this article, I provide a critique of ways in which parents have been represented in school bullying research, and consider how these representations inform public discourse about parents in relation to bullying. I argue that prevailing representations of parents in terms of responsibility and risk are a product of the dominance of psychological conceptualisations of bullying as individual pathological behaviour which stems from child development problems associated with poor parenting. As I show, this is but one of a number of ways in which bullying has been conceptualised in the research literature and provides a limited view of parents in relation to a complex social and cultural problem. I suggest that post-structural approaches to bullying research provide an important opportunity to broaden our understanding of how parents are positioned in the social and institutional systems of power in which bullying, and responses to it, takes place; and to move beyond current counter-productive discourses of responsibility and blame.     

Teacher–Student Relationship Quality and Children's Bullying Experiences With Peers: Reflecting on the Mesosystem

Drawing from social–ecological systems theory, the authors argue that -current research on childhood bullying would benefit from analyses that consider the -mesosystem—specifically, how teacher–student relationships can influence -children's bullying experiences. The authors provide two theoretical conceptions for how children's peer interactions are implicitly shaped by teacher–student relationship quality: attachment and social referral. Implications for practice, with an emphasis on developing teachers' social–emotional competencies to strengthen positive teacher–student relationships, are proposed.     

Peer mentorship: a powerful buffer against those with legitimate right and power to bully subordinates

ABSTRACT

We used collective analytical autoethnography (CAAE) to investigate experiences of academic bullying and mobbing in our study. Specifically, four autoethnographers shared and analyzed personal experiences of being mobbed and bullied, described their perceptions of workplace bullying, its manifestations, and explored the emotional, social, psychological and career consequences associated with being bullied and mobbed at work. In addition, the autoethnographers reflected on different resources used to cope with mobbing and bullying experiences and revealed – peer mentorship and social support – as instrumental in helping them cope with both the physical and emotional distresses associated with the bullying and mobbing experiences. Implications from the findings and suggestions for future research are also presented.     

Exploring the impact of bullying on young bystanders

This study aimed to explore peer bullying events in schools by using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to consider the experiences of young bystanders: the perceptions and understandings of students who had witnessed bullying. Participants were aged 12–13 and attended two neighbouring secondary schools in the UK. Four themes were generated: the power and limits of language in bullying incidents; the power of moral frameworks; the presence of dynamic social systems, both inside and outside peer groups; and the psychological consequences of being a bystander. Implications of the research are discussed, for the practice of school staff and for educational psychologists.     

School-based bullying experiences as reflected by adults with visual impairments

The purpose of this study was to describe the reflections of adults with visual impairments regarding bullying experiences during their school-based education. An interpretative phenomenological analysis research approach was used and 11 participants (aged 20–35 years; seven women, four men) participated in this study. The sources of data were semi-structured audiotaped telephone interviews and reflective field notes. Thematic development was undertaken utilizing a three-step analytical process guided by the research approach. Based on the data analysis, three interrelated themes were constructed: (a) “It would be when they knew there weren't teachers watching”: bullying experiences in unowned and unstructured spaces; (b) “Going through the motions”: feelings about verbal, social, and physical victimization; and (c) “They had their own insecurities”: understanding the bullies and bystanders. The emerged themes provide a unique insight into the way in which those with visual impairments experienced bullying in schools and the meaning they ascribed to those experiences.     

School bullying as a creator of pupil peer pressure

Background:?Research into school bullying has a long tradition but a rather narrow scope. Many prevention programmes have been designed, but despite extensive investigation, most studies suggest that bullying is not decreasing. There is something paradoxical in this phenomenon. In order to have any real impact on some phenomena, thorough understanding is needed. What, then, is the essence of school bullying? How does it develop and how is it maintained in a community? In the present study written material and interviews concerning pupils´ experiences of bullying were used to examine how the status of the bully is created among pupils and how cultural norms and values in the community are constructed via bullying. Bullying as a phenomenon is a hidden process, where teachers are often misled. The meanings given to bullying behaviour can often be understood only by the pupils in the community. This is why bullying is possible in the presence of the teacher and also during lessons. The study suggests the need to see bullying in a broader social and cultural framework, which also provides a new way of understanding pupils´ social relationships.

Purpose:?This study attempts to understand school bullying as a phenomenon from a social and cultural viewpoint. Communication in and meanings given to bullying acts in the school community are in focus.

Sample:?The study sample comprised 85 lower secondary school pupils, aged 13–15, from various schools in central Finland. The data analysed consisted of 85 written accounts and 10 interviews.

Design and methods:?Pupils were asked to write about ‘School bullying’. The interviews were open-ended thematic interviews or episodic interviews (cf. Friebertshäuser). A hermeneutic method was used in analysing the meanings in the texts. The transcribed texts were analysed using categories and themes within which the meanings given to bullying were interpreted.

Results:?Our study suggested that bullying behaviour consists of short communicative situations which are often hidden from teachers. These separate situations account for the subjective experience of bullying. Bullying behaviour is a way of gaining power and status in a group or school class. The status is maintained by calling a pupil who is bullied different names. The ‘difference’ in the bullied pupil is interpreted as a culturally avoidable characteristic. In this way, bullying behaviour creates cultural norms and forces all pupils in the bullying community to follow them. Telling stories and calling the bullied pupil names increases the group's cohesion and the treatment of the bullied pupil creates fear in other pupils, who do not dare to fight bullying. In a community where bullying occurs, fear and guilt are obvious.

Conclusions:?Bullying is embedded in cultural norms, values and social status in the whole community. The hidden nature of the phenomenon emerges in short communicative situations that should be taken seriously. This research applies an approach from sociology and cultural studies to an area that has been dominated by psychological approaches. In doing so, it opens up a variety of interpretations of what bullying is and how it develops in schools.     

Risk and Protective Factors for Homophobic Bullying in Schools: An Application of the Social–Ecological Framework

Homophobic bullying is a serious concern for students, parents, teachers, and school officials. This article reviews evidence on the status of this problem and how it may be addressed in a multilevel and multidisciplinary manner growing out of a social–ecological perspective on homophobic bullying as a social phenomenon. The ecological framework developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner (1977, 1979) is applied to organize this effort, which includes micro-, exo-, and macro-systems in which behavior and development are embedded. The inherent fluidity of experience postulated by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological approach offers hope that as practices and policy to promote diversity move forward, they will reshape the social ecology of sexual minority youth.     

Social violence and the trivialising effects of youth in school bullying: Extended listening to South Australian young people on bullying and violence

School bullying attracts significant research and resources globally, yet critical questions are being raised about the long-term impact of these efforts. There is a disconnect between young people's perspectives and the long-established psychology-based technical definitions of school bullying dominating practice and policy in Australia. This dominant paradigm has recently been described as the first paradigm of school bullying. In contrast, this paper explores the potential for reorienting school bullying research towards the concerns of young people and away from adult-derived technical definitions. Borrowing from paradigm two, which emphasises the social, cultural and philosophical (among others) elements of school bullying, in this paper, I approach bullying under the broad banner of ‘social violence’. This approach addresses some of the inherent limitations of the first paradigm to conceptualise social and cultural dynamics. I argue that a ‘social violence’ approach reveals that the exclusionary effects of the social phenomenon of youth continue to be overlooked. Furthermore, the term ‘violence’ in bullying research could benefit from integrating contemporary sociological insights on this phenomenon. This paper draws on qualitative insights from a small group of young people in secondary schooling in South Australia gained through prolonged listening to peer conversations in a series of focus groups. In addition, 1:1 interviews were conducted pre and post the focus group series. I argue that these participants' insights reveal the exclusionary effects of youth and the employment of bullying to trivialise young people's experiences and concern for harm. There is a need to reprioritise young people's knowledge in school bullying research and the exclusionary effects of youth alongside other social forces.     

Adolescents’ psychological well-being and self-esteem in the context of relationships at school

Background:?The school environment has shown itself to be an important factor in explaining adolescent behaviour. The relationships and experiences that pupils have at school have been found to influence their development, psychological well-being, self-esteem and social adjustment.

Purpose:?The aim of the study is to explore whether there is a relationship between pupil–peer and pupil–teacher relationships and psychological well-being and self-esteem, and whether this relationship varies according to pupils’ experience of bullying or being bullied.

Sample: Data consisted of a sample of 3694 students (mean age?±?SD 14.3?±?0.62 years; 51% girls) from elementary schools in Slovakia.

Design and method:?Questionnaires were administered to the students. In terms of data analysis, linear regression was firstly used in the whole sample to explore pupil–peer and pupil–teacher relationships and psychological well-being (the depression/anxiety and social dysfunction subscales of GHQ-12) and self-esteem (positive and negative self-esteem subscales of RSE). Next, the whole sample was divided into four groups in terms of involvement in bullying (normative contrasts, passive victims, aggressive non-victims and aggressive victims). Linear regression was used to explore the associations between pupil–peer and pupil–teacher relationships with the two factors of psychological well-being and two factors of self-esteem in these four groups.

Results:?As findings showed, better pupil–peer relationships and also pupil–teacher relationships were significantly related statistically to less depression/anxiety and social dysfunction, as well as to more positive and less negative self-esteem. All bullying categories were significantly related to pupil–peer relationships and the four dependent variables. However, in the categories of aggressive victims and aggressive non-victims, the pupil–teacher relationship was not significantly related to their psychological well-being and self-esteem. Also, in all subgroups, better pupil–peer relationships were significantly related to less depression/anxiety and social dysfunction, as well as with more positive and less negative self-esteem.

Conclusion:?Given the differences found in the connections between pupil–teacher relationships and well-being and self-esteem, between those who bullied and those who were bullied, it would seem that the school environment can play an important role in implementing anti-bullying prevention strategies.     

Participant Roles in Bullying: How Can Peer Bystanders Be Utilized in Interventions?

This article provides a view of school bullying as a group phenomenon and practical implications stemming from this approach. The motivation for bullying perpetration often relates to one's social standing in the group. Peer bystanders are typically present when bullying takes place, often providing the perpetrators with social rewards. The more such rewards (e.g., laughing, cheering) are present and the less the victimized children are supported and defended, the more likely bullying is maintained in a classroom or a peer group. However, bystanders are not necessarily aware of the consequences of their responses when witnessing bullying, and they may not know how to support and defend vulnerable peers. In interventions aiming to reduce bullying, peer bystanders' awareness of their own role, their empathy toward victimized youth, as well as their self-efficacy related to defending those youth should be enhanced. Intervention evaluations have shown that changing bystander responses to bullying is a fruitful way to reduce bullying and victimization.     

Students' experiences of aggressive behaviour and bully/victim problems in Irish schools

Since the 1980s, a greater understanding of the frequency and typology of bullying/victim problems in schools has been accrued in many countries, including Ireland, where a nationwide study of bullying behaviour in schools was undertaken in 1993–1994. However, rather less is known about Irish school students' involvement in other forms of aggressive behaviour. The purpose of the survey described here was to ascertain the prevalence of school students' experiences of certain categories of general aggressive behaviour, as well as the prevalence of bully/victim problems, in Irish schools. Data were obtained via the administration of a specially and extensively modified version of the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire to 5569 participants (2312 primary and 3257 post-primary) in Ireland in the autumn/winter school term of 2004–2005. Principally, it was found that experiences of aggressive behaviour appeared to be widespread; whilst age trends varied according to individual categories of aggressive behaviour, gender differences were more clear – boys were more frequently the targets of ‘direct’ forms of aggressive behaviour, whereas girls were more frequently the targets of ‘indirect’ forms. Furthermore, bully/victim problems appear to be persistent in Irish schools, with 35.3% of primary students and 36.4% of post-primary students reporting having been bullied over the last three months. It was contended that inroads into preventing and dealing with bullying and aggressive behaviour in Irish schools might best be made via governmentally-supported nationwide intervention programmes, as has been the case in Norway.     

Self-reported harm of adolescent peer aggression in three world regions

While the poor psychosocial outcomes of young people who have experienced bullying are well known, the harm associated with experiences that do not meet the bullying criteria is not well understood. The aim of this study was to examine the level of harm associated with experiences of peer aggression, as well as bullying, by directly measuring the four elements of intent, perceived harm, repetition and power imbalance that comprise the bullying criteria. The purpose of the study was to establish whether bullying was the most harmful form of peer aggression and whether other types of peer aggression that did not comprise all elements of bullying were comparably harmful. Over 6000 students (aged 11–16) from 10 countries completed a student victimization and aggression questionnaire. Data showed that approximately 50% of participants were not intentionally harmed through peer aggression, although this varied across countries, ranging from 10% in India to 87.5% in Taiwan. In all countries, analyses identified a group that had experienced repeated peer aggression, but with no power imbalance, comparable in size to the bullied group, suggesting that bullying is just “the tip of the iceberg”. Victims of bullying self-reported the greatest experiences of harm, although victims of repeated aggression reported comparable harm. The findings show that peer aggression experiences that do not meet the bullying criteria are also rated as harmful by victims. More research is needed to fully understand negative peer interactions that include behaviors outside the scope of the bullying definition, particularly with regard to repeated peer aggression. This study suggests that researchers should consider the level of harm experienced by individuals and avoid terminology such as bullying, while policy makers should place a strong and explicit focus on encompassing a broader realm of harmful peer aggression.     

Friendship motivations,challenges and the role of masking for girls with autism in contrasting school settings

To date little is known about the experiences of girls with autism, or how they live with and manage their autism. This qualitative study explored experiences of learning, friendships and bullying of girls with autism. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 girls with autism, aged 11–17 years, and one parent of each girl. Thematic analysis identified key themes relating to motivation to have friends, challenges for girls with autism and the notion that many girls tend to mask their autism, which had both positive and negative consequences. Overall, the girls were motivated to have friends, but often encountered social difficulties and were sometimes targeted for bullying. Findings pointed to the need for interventions such as staff training and programmes to support the social interaction of girls with autism based on their specific perceptions of friendship.     

Children’s Voices on Bullying in Kindergarten

Research suggests that bullying does occur in kindergarten. The extent of bullying in Norway and other Scandinavian countries is estimated to be about 12 %. The purpose of this study is to investigate children’s understanding and experiences of bullying. We use a qualitative approach and have conducted individual interviews and focus group interviews with a total of 31 children, 5 year-olds, in 4 different kindergartens. Additionally, observations were made of 4–5 year-olds in the same kindergartens, 142 children in total. The results show that the children describe bullying as doing or saying “something mean”. Exclusion from play is what all the children fear the most. This study shows that 1–2 children in each kindergarten are systematically excluded from play, and these children are overlooked by both other children and the adults in kindergarten.     

Reducing Bullying: Application of Social Cognitive Theory

Social cognitive theory (SCT) is an important heuristic for understanding the complexity of bullying behaviors and the social nature of involvement in bullying. Bullying has been heralded as a social relationship problem, and the interplay between the individual and his or her social environment supports this conceptualization. SCT has been used to help guide the development of an individualized intervention for bully perpetrators, which will be described in this article. Intervening directly with those who bully others helps understand individual variation in bullying, as well as teaches bully perpetrators alternative, prosocial ways of interacting with others. Students who bully others exhibit a complex array of psychological, cognitive, and social characteristics. In this article, we argue that to truly reduce bullying, interventions must address these psychological, cognitive, and social contributing factors. Only when interventions target these constructs will individuals be able to transform their bullying behaviors into prosocial interactions.     

Adolescents’ definitions of bullying: the contribution of age,gender, and experience of bullying

The aim of the present research was to examine adolescents’ definitions of bullying in a nationally representative sample of adolescents in Ireland. Definitions of bullying were examined according to age, gender, and bullying experiences. A sample of 4358 adolescents aged 12–19 years (M?=?14.99 years, SD?=?1.63) provided their definitions of bullying as part of the My World Survey-Second Level. The definitions were explored using content analysis. Adolescents differed in terms of their definition of bullying, with younger students frequently describing the nature of bullying as mean, while older students displayed a heightened awareness of the feelings associated with being a victim of bullying. Older females and those who had experienced bullying were more likely to discuss the emotions associated with bullying compared to males and those who had not been bullied. Adolescent definitions of bullying were not in line with widely accepted researcher definitions. Recommendations are made for researchers and those designing anti-bullying interventions and educational programmes.     

Limitations of focussing on homophobic,biphobic and transphobic ‘bullying’ to understand and address LGBT young people's experiences within and beyond school

This paper presents new empirical data that highlight how a focus on ‘bullying’ is too limited and narrow when thinking about homophobia, biphobia and transphobia that young people may experience. The paper draws on two recent studies with young lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans participants, which each identified issues and experiences not readily captured within dominant bullying discourses and understandings. Findings are examined within three sections: beyond ‘bullying’, questioning inevitability, and (in)appropriate responses. In conclusion, I set out some implications and suggestions for the development of practice and future research concerning homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in youth settings.     

Bullying and social exclusion anxiety in schools

In this article, I develop a new conceptual framework, a new thinking technology, for understanding the bullying that takes place between children in schools. In addition, I propose a new definition of bullying. This new thinking technology reflects a shift in focus from individual characteristics to the social processes that may lead to bullying. The social approach theorises bullying as one of many reactions to particular kinds of social insecurity. The concepts I develop include the necessity of belonging, social exclusion anxiety and the production of contempt and dignity by both children and adults. I also draw on Judith Butler’s concept of abjection. In the last part of the article, I employ Karen Barad’s theory of agential realism, focusing specifically on her concept of intra-acting enacting forces. The entry to the theoretical development is based on empirical data generated in Denmark during a comprehensive five-year study of bullying.