Help seeking amongst child and adolescent victims of peer-aggression and bullying: the influence of school-stage, gender, victimisation, appraisal, and emotion.

نویسندگان

  • Simon C Hunter
  • James M E Boyle
  • David Warden
چکیده

BACKGROUND An important element of many anti-bullying programmes is encouraging victims to tell someone about their predicament. Research has already reported prevalence of telling, who/when children tell and efficacy of telling. However, seeking help can be viewed as a coping behaviour, and coping processes such as appraisal and emotion may be important predictors of whether pupils ask for help. AIMS To examine the effects that background variables (gender, school-stage), victimisation (duration, frequency), appraisal (threat, challenge, control) and negative emotion have upon support seeking by child and adolescent victims of peer-aggression and bullying. To also examine how effective pupils perceive social support to be. SAMPLE Participants were 830 children (49% male) aged 9-14 years. Three hundred and seventeen pupils were in Primary 6, 307 in Secondary 2 and 206 in Secondary 3. METHOD A self-report bullying questionnaire was completed by the participants within their classes. Questionnaires included items relating to victimisation, appraisal, emotion, and coping strategy choice as well as demographic data. RESULTS Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that gender, challenge appraisals, and emotions were significant predictors of the degree to which child and adolescent victims of peer-aggression and bullying sought help (accounting for 15.8% of the variance): girls were more likely than boys to seek help, as were pupils with high challenge appraisals or those experiencing high levels of negative emotion. Also, girls were more likely than boys to view support as the best strategy for both stopping bullying and for helping them to feel better. CONCLUSION Results suggest that pupils are more willing to seek help when they see the situation as one in which something can be achieved. Pupils also may be seeking support to get help coping with negative emotions, and this may need to be emphasized to teachers.

برای دانلود رایگان متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Does psychological functioning mediate the relationship between bullying involvement and weight loss preoccupation in adolescents? A two-stage cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND Adolescent bullying is associated with a range of adversities for those who are bullied i.e., victims and bully-victims (e.g., those who bully others and get victimised), including reduced psychological functioning and eating disorder symptoms. Bullies are generally well-adjusted psychologically, but previous research suggests that bullies may also engage in problematic diet behaviou...

متن کامل

Does forgiveness mediate the impact of school bullying on adolescent mental health?

OBJECTIVE The link between both bullying and victimisation and psychopathology has been well established. Forgiveness has been associated with better mental health. However, few studies have examined the relationship between adolescent forgiveness, psychopathology and bullying/victimisation. This study investigated forgiveness as a mediator of the adverse mental health problems experienced by b...

متن کامل

The influence of emotional reaction on help seeking by victims of school bullying

The influence of emotional reaction on help seeking by victims of school bullying S. C. Hunter & M. G. Borg University of Strathclyde, UK; University of Malta, Malta Research has started to focus on how victims of school bullying cope, but there is still very little understanding if why pupils cope in one way and not another. This paper aimed to examine the effects of gender, school-stage, freq...

متن کامل

Appraisal and coping strategy use in victims of school bullying.

BACKGROUND Transactional models of coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) can contribute to our understanding of why some children cope effectively with bullying while others suffer negative outcomes. However, previous research has relied on coping measures that are not comparable with adult measures, restricting investigation of developmental trends. Additionally, previous research has not included ...

متن کامل

Bullying in school and cyberspace: Associations with depressive symptoms in Swiss and Australian adolescents

BACKGROUND Cyber-bullying (i.e., bullying via electronic means) has emerged as a new form of bullying that presents unique challenges to those victimised. Recent studies have demonstrated that there is a significant conceptual and practical overlap between both types of bullying such that most young people who are cyber-bullied also tend to be bullied by more traditional methods. Despite the ov...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

عنوان ژورنال:
  • The British journal of educational psychology

دوره 74 Pt 3  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2004