Session Information
04 SES 08 A, Bullying
Paper Session
Contribution
Bullying is a pervasive problem in schools that affects a lot of students. Researchers have described associations between bullying by peers and a number of different dimensions of internal distress and social problems. Students affected by bullying will be at higher risk of developing depression, anxiety, loneliness, mistrust of others, low self-esteem, poor social adjustment, poor academic achievement, and poor health as compared to others (e.g., Aluede, Adeleke, Omoike & Afen-Akpaida, 2008: Beran, 2009; Hawker & Boulton, 2000; Rigby, 2003). Research on bullying has usually been and is still mainly conducted by quantitative methods. Although quantitative research has a significant impact of our current knowledge of bullying and provides a lot of critical information, qualitative and mixed methods research provides opportunities to study bullying and peer harassment as social processes, interactions, and meaning making in the context of particular settings. It offers the possibility of developing a deeper understanding of the culture and group processes of bullying and participants’ perspectives of peer harassment as well. It gives children and youths opportunities to discuss their own understanding of bullying and bullying experiences in their own voices.
A broad interactionist perspective, including symbolic interactionism (e.g., Blumer, 1969; Charon, 2007), Goffman’s (1963) theory of stigma, labeling theory (e.g., Becker, 1963), and Berger and Luckmann’s (1967) social constructionist theory, was used as a theoretical framework in this study. In the light of an interactionist perspective, bullying was viewed as a social act or joint action (Blumer, 1969; Charon, 2007), in which the meanings of bullying and its participants, victims, and causes were derived from or aroused out of social interactions among children. These meanings were dealt with and modified through the interpretative process used by the students in dealing with the bullying they encounter. In line with the social constructionist theory, labeling theory and theory of stigma, bullying and its social roles and meanings were seen as social constructions.
The aim of this study was to investigate how individuals, who had been victims of school bullying, perceived that their bullying experiences had influenced them, and to generate a grounded theory of being victim of bullying at school.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Aluede, O., Adeleke, F., Omoike, D., & Afen-Akpaida, J. (2008). A review of the extent, nature, characteristics and effects of bullying in schools. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 35, 151-158. Becker, H. S. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in the sociology of deviance. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe. Beran, T. (2009). Correlates of peer victimization and achievement: An exploratory model. Psychology in the Schools, 46, 348-361. Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1967). The social construction of reality. New York: Anchor books. Blumer, H. (1969). Symbolic interactionism. Berkeley: University of California Press. Charmaz, K. (2003). Grounded theory: Objectivist and constructivist methods. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Strategies for qualitative inquiry (2nd ed., pp. 249-291). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory. London: Sage Publications. Charon, J. M. (2007). Symbolic interactionism: An introduction, an interpretation, an integration (9th ed.). New Jersey: Upper Saddle River. Glaser, B. G. (1978). Theoretical sensitivity. San Francisco: The Sociology Press. Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967/1999). The discovery of groun¬ded the¬ory. New York: Aldine de Gruyter. Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma. New York: Simon & Schuster. Hawker, D. S. J., & Boulton, M. J. (2000). Twenty years research on peer victimization and psychosocial maladjustment: A meta-analytic review of cross-sectional studies. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 41, 441-455. Rigby, K. (2003). Consequences of bullying in schools. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 48, 583-590.
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