“I survived”: Coping Strategies for Bullying

in Schools

A Systematic Literature Review from 2009-2020

Arfa Imran

One-year master thesis 15 credits Supervisor

Interventions in Childhood Mats Granlund

Examinator

Spring Semester 2020 Madeleine Sjöman

2

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

AND COMMUNICATION (HLK)

Jönköping University

Master Thesis 15 credits

Interventions in Childhood

Spring Semester 2020

ABSTRACT

Author: Arfa Imran

I survived: Coping Strategies for Bullying in Schools

A Systematic Literature Review from 2009-2020

Pages: 30

Bullying has been recognised as the most severe problem for children in school

settings in the past few decades. It can have a tremendous psychological impact on the

child, which can affect not only his or her learning but also everyday functioning and

overall well-being. Understanding how students handle ‘bullying incidents’ in

different situations may help researchers set new foundations to develop more

comprehensive and effective educational and intervention programs.

The purpose of this systematic literature review was to investigate the use of different

coping strategies for bullying in middle and high school children. A search for

scholarly articles evaluating such measures has been carried out in ERIC, SCOPUS,

and PSYCH INFO, which resulted in seven articles. 12 coping strategies emerged as a

result which included self-control, compliance, relaxation, retaliation, seeking

assistance, distancing, concealment, verbal aggression, self-blame, victimization, self-

harm, and drug abuse. Coping strategies for bullying in these articles covered a wide

range of essential aspects to counter bullying incidents and stress, bullying definitions,

and bullying situations. Limitations and implications for future research and practice

have been considered.

Keywords: bullying, victimization, victims, coping, strategies, mechanisms, school, middle school, high school

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Table of Contents 1.Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... 4

1.1 Bullying ............................................................................................................................................................. 4

1.2 Types of Bullying………………………………………………………………………………………..4

1.3 Coping Behavior…………………………………………………………………………………………5

2.Aim……………………………………………………………………………………………………………...8

3. Method…………………………………………………………………………………………………………5

3.1 Systematic Literature Review…………………………………………………………………………..6

3.2 Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria……………………………………………………………………….. 9

3.3 Search Procedure………………………………………………………………………………………..10.

3.4 Data Extraction………………………………………………………………………………………….12

3.5 Quality Assessment……………………………………………………………………………………..12

3.6 Data Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………… . 16

4.Results…………………………………………………………………………………………………………16

4.1 General Characteristics………………………………………………………………………………….17

4.2 Main Findings…………………………………………………………………………………………...21

4.3 Bullying Situations……………………………………………………………………………………...26

4.4 Different Locations for Bullying………………………………………………………………………..26

4.5 Different Reasons for Bullying………………………………………………………………………....26

5. Discussions……………………………………………………………………………………………………27

5.1 Reflections on findings and practical implications………………………………………………….....28

5.2 Methodological issues……………………………………………………………………………….…29

5.3 Limitations……………………………………………………………………………………………. 29

6.Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………….31

7.References……………………………………………………………………………………………………..31

Appendix A Extraction protocol for full-text screening………………………………………………......38

Appendix B Thematic Analysis of Coping Strategies…………………………………………………….39

Appendix C Types of Bullying and the Coping Strategies employed…………………………………….41

Appendix D Thematic Analysis of Bullying Situations…………………………………………………...61

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1.Introduction

1.1Bullying

School bullying may not have been looked at as a problem that could impact or affect

education, but sadly it is not the case anymore. Research has proved that “Bullying” has

emerged as one of the most serious problems of recent years, that has plagued the world of

education. Research has proven that bullying behaviours often result in both serious short-

and long-term outcomes that are not only damaging for the victims, but the perpetrators are

also affected by psychological distress. Besides, Craig (1998) found that repeated

victimization in children can lead to problems such as stress, anxiety, and depression.

Bullying is also associated with peer rejection, an early dropout from school, criminal

behaviour, adult psychopathology, and even suicidal behaviour in most extreme cases. (Crick,

1995; Parker and Asher, 1987). The most frequently occurring type of traditional bullying

was, name calling, followed by threats and intimidation, then physical bullying and social

exclusion (Green et al., 2010).

Educationists have defined bullying in many ways, but they have agreed upon

some common aspects: such as unwanted, abusive, aggressive, and repetitive behaviour to

harm or terrorize someone. It is anger and aggression towards individuals with weak self-

defence, with an imbalance of power between the aggressor and victim (Nansel et al., 2001;

Naylor, Cowie, & del Rey, 2001; Olweus, 1994).According to Olweus (1993) bullying

behaviour should essentially consist of three elements: it must be harmful, repetitive and it

should consist of a difference of power which can be physical, social, or any other, between

the bully and the victim. Bullying in school is a severe problem affecting between 7 and 35%

of children and adolescents in Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan (Smith

et al.,1999).

Since bullying is associated with severe mental and physical health issues in

children therefore, educationists and health workers must have a good understanding of the

problems related to bullying. This can help not only to develop prevention programs but also

intervention outcomes that can benefit victims and bullies equally.

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1.2 Types of Bullying

“Bullying behaviour” can be seen in many different forms. It may be demonstrated through

physical or verbal abuse, like being regularly kicked or punched, continuous teasing, name-

calling, swearing, being threatened, spreading lies and false rumours , passing on nasty notes,

vandalising or even taking one's property by force, or being isolated from groups and

activities (Fitzgerald,1999).There was a clear distinction made by Olweus (1993) between

“direct bullying” (open attacks on a victim) and “indirect bullying” (e.g., social isolation) and

he laid more importance on indirect bullying due to its invisible nature. Other researchers

identified three types of bullying (Fitzgerald, 1999) as physical (e.g., beating, punching,

pushing, kicking), verbal (e.g., nasty name calling, verbal abuse, threatening, insulting,

spreading gossip or rumours), and psychological (e.g., damaging or vandalizing one's

possessions, writing threatening or frightening notes, isolating socially). Hawker and Boulton

(2000) categorized five different types of bullying: (a) indirect, (b) relational, (c) physical, (d)

verbal, and (e) generic (e.g., making fun of, harassing, or tormenting).

According to the researchers the most common form of bullying is the physical

bullying, However, indirect bullying, such as name- calling and teasing, may also be as

common as physical bullying (Seals & Young, 2003). Whereas, indirect bullying behaviours,

such as verbal bullying or social exclusion, might be more harmful and may not decline with

age (Bauman & DelRio, 2006). Besides, boys tend to use physical power, and girls tend to

display verbal types as an indirect form of bullying (Rivers & Smith, 1994).

The continuous abusive encounters may result in devastating situations for the

victims that may cause anxiety, anger, depression or other negative thoughts and feelings that

can cause extreme reactions towards others or oneself (Carney, 2000; Hazler, 1996, 1997).

Self-declared victims have reported feelings of vengeance, anger, self-pity (Kempf, 2011) and

public humiliation which can lead to tragic consequences in many cases (Rigby and Slee,

(1999). As a result, humiliation and self-pity emerge with suicidal ideation (Stillion, 1994) In

contrast, the related feelings of anger and vengefulness have led to aggression against the

school peers (Elliot, Hamburg, and Williams, 1998). How victims cope with bullying is,

therefore, essential.

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1.3 Bullying Situations

Many theories, models and programmes have emerged in the 1990s with guidance on how to

prevent or intervene in peer-on-peer abuse situations (Hazler, 1996; Olweus; 1997, Smith et

al., 1999). Each of these many programmes places initial and continuous emphasis on the

ability of adults and youth to recognize problem situations as they occur rather than placing

sole emphasis on identifying bully or victim characteristics. Vaillancourt et al, in 2010

explained previous studies provided by researchers to identify bullying locations in school

children are limited to responses based on the given choices, and not the experiences of the

children. Children often experience peer victimization at or near their school in areas of

limited adult supervision, such as the playground, cafeteria, bathroom, or hallway (Beale &

Scott, 2001). Rapp-Paglicci et al in 2004 reported that very few studies have thoroughly

explored dangerous locations at schools, but those that have found hallways, cafeterias,

bathrooms, classrooms, playgrounds, and locker rooms to be dangerous areas or “hot spots”

where bullying tends to occur. They further elaborate that bullying usually occurs at places

where teachers and authorities are absent.

Bullying situations may also look at the different reasons why school children

are bullied. A growing number of researches have concluded that minority youth maybe the

victims of peer victimization because of their racial, ethnic, minority background, rather than

personal reasons (Lai and Tav 2004).

1.4 Coping Behaviour

Coping is defined as the cognitive or behavioral effort to eliminate the negative emotions

elicited by excessive demands (Monat and Lazarus, 1991). Lazarus (2006) has defined coping

as a person’s effort to handle environmental stress and to deal with the emotions that are a

result of the stress. The ability to cope with the stressful situations of life is essential in

promoting psychological and emotional health (Lazarus, 2006). Individuals’ definitions of

coping strategies may change from one context to another. Thus, some strategies may be used

in seriously threatening situations, while quite different strategies are used to handle everyday

problems (Lazarus, 1999). To focus on general coping strategies has occasionally been

considered as appropriate when describing coping in situations of chronic or prolonged stress

(Gottileb,1997). It has been further elaborated as the person's cognitive and behavioural

efforts to reduce or tolerate the internal and external demands of the person-environment

transaction that is appraised as tiring or exceeding the person's limits.

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Coping has two significant functions: dealing with the problem that is causing

distress (problem-focused coping) and regulating emotion (emotion-focused coping)

(Folkman and Lazarus, 1986). Previous research (e.g., Folkman & Lazarus, 1980, 1985) have

shown that people use both forms of coping in almost all types of a stressful situation.

The Problem-focused forms of coping includes aggressive attempts to change the situation, as

well as calm, sensible efforts to solve the problem. The emotion-focused forms of coping

include distancing oneself, self-controlling, seeking social support, escape-avoidance,

accepting responsibility, and positive reappraisal.

Folkman and Lazarus (1980) developed a scale called the Ways of Coping

Checklist, which assessed coping based on their Transaction Model. This scale examined

emotion-focused and problem-focused coping using a 68-item checklist, that described

different types of coping behaviours. The stress and coping theory on which the 68-item scale

was based, required that the subject focused on a current serious stressor. Initially, it had two

scales the problem-focused scale: that dealt with managing the source or the problem, and the

emotion-focused scale: that handled regulations of emotions. The emotion-focused theme

mainly addressed, strategies that employed cognitive or behavioural techniques to handle the

emotional outcomes of stress. The problem-focused category involved problem-solving

approach that specifically attempted to solve the problem. The scale used eight categories to

examine coping strategies. Confrontive coping, taking aggressive action to change a situation;

distancing, detaching oneself from the situation and minimizing its importance; self-

controlling, regulating ones feelings and emotions; seeking social support, discussing the

problem with somebody else and receiving emotional and informational support; accepting

responsibility. Recognizing how one contributed to the problem and attempting to make a

change; escape-avoidance, thoughts and behaviours to escape and avoid the problem; planful

problem solving, analysing the issue to resolve it; and positive reappraisal, thinking

positively about the situation (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980; Frydenberg & Lewis, 1991; Ways

of Coping Questionnaire, 2009).

The second theory of coping that contributed to the development of the present

study suggested that coping could be divided into two orientations aimed at addressing stress:

approach and avoidance (Roth & Cohen, 1986). Approach coping strategies focussed on the

threatening stimulus and addressing the threat directly. Approach strategies also included

taking action that could resolve a stressful situation but could also lead to increased anxiety

resulting from facing the distressing situation. Avoidance strategies involved staying away

from the stressor and escaping the threatening stimuli. Avoidance strategies were associated

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with reducing stress, but rarely contributed to a resolution of the problem (Roth & Cohen,

1986) emotions and outwardly directed anger. Peer victimization, or bullying, is a common problem for children and youth that

often requires cognitive or behavioural strategies to deal with negative outcomes. The

methods that are chosen by many students to cope with a stressful problem such as bullying,

may vary from person to person and also differ from how they address other distressing

events (Skinner, Edge, Altman, & Sherwood,2003). Therefore, it is vital to understand the

nature of coping strategies with bullying and the various factors that may influence students’

choices to implement specific strategies. Such factors include how often the student is

involved in bullying, either as a victim or as the bully.

With the help of longitudinal studies, Kochenderfer and Ladd (1997) in the USA

found that bullying was more persistent for five‐ to six‐year‐old male victims who peers

thought “fought back” in response to bullying, compared with male victims of the same age

who were perceived by peers as “having a friend help” in bullying situations. Using self‐ and

peer‐nominations in a study of 12‐ to 13‐year‐old victims, Salmivalli, Karhunen and

Lagerspetz (1996) in Finland found that “helplessness” and “counter‐aggression” in female

victims were behaviours associated with initiation or continuation of bullying. In contrast, for

male victims only “counter‐aggression” was associated with this. Behaviours related to

diminished or discontinued bullying were a lack of “helplessness” for female victims, and

“nonchalance ” as well as a lack of “counter‐aggression”, for male victims.

According to a study cited in more comprehensive research (Smith et al.,2001),

the most common coping methods used by victims include: ignoring the bully, asking them to

stop, requesting an adult for help and fighting back; and the least common was running away,

asking friends for help and crying. Researches, at the primary and secondary school level have

shown that, in general, some of the successful strategies include informing a teacher, asking

friends for help, and ignoring, whereas, some unsuccessful strategies are fighting back, acting

passive or showing helplessness.(Hunter et al.,2004; Naylor et al., 2001; Salmivalli et al.,

1996;Smith et al., 2001, 2004).

Confiding in someone about a bullying experience is one of the many strategies,

or coping mechanisms, victims can use to reduce their problem and manage the stress of being

bullied (Kochenderfer-Ladd & Skinner, 2002). Few systematic reviews so far are based on

how bully-victims themselves perceive bullying and strategies for coping with bullying. Such

reviews require that primarily qualitative studies focusing on children’s perceptions and

experiences are reviewed.

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2. Aim

The purpose of this systematic literature review is to analyse what previous qualitative

research studies report about the coping behaviour pattern used by children in a bullying

encounter. And, how bullying has been defined by children in the researches.

The three research questions are as follow:

1. What coping behaviour, reported by previous studies, is used by school children to

handle bullying in a situation?

2. How has bullying been defined by the researchers to the participants in these studies?

3. How a bullying situation is described by the victims in these researches?

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3. Method

The research question has been devised using the PEO (population, exposure, outcome)

method. This framework is more suitable to formulate questions for qualitative research.

Table 1 PEO method

PEO

What coping behaviour (Outcome), reported by

previous studies, is used by school children

(Population) to handle bullying in a situation

(Exposure)?

3.1 Systematic Literature Review

To answer the research questions a systematic literature review was conducted used. A

systematic literature review (SLR) identifies, selects, and critically appraises previous

research to answer a formulated question (Dewey, A. & Drahota, A. 2016). A systematic

review is research on its own but can address much broader questions than empirical studies

can (e.g. uncovering connections among many empirical findings (Baumeister & Leary,

1997). According to the nature of the research questions for this paper, a qualitative approach

would be more suitable for the systematic review. The qualitative approaches are more in-

depth and insightful findings of the quantitative study, whereas, the quantitative approach can

be used to verify the findings from a qualitative study (Aveyard, 2014).

3.2 Inclusion/exclusion criteria

The criteria used for the inclusion and exclusion during the screening process were established

based on the three questions: What coping behaviour, reported by previous studies, is used by

school children to handle bullying in a situation?

How has bullying been defined by the researchers to the participants in these studies?

How a bullying situation is described by the victims in these researches? The review aimed to

identify the coping methods used by school children during bullying situations in school

premises. The review included studies with typically developing school children and the focus

was on how they coped with verbal, physical or relational bullying. The chosen time frame for

the studies spanned from 2009-2020. The inclusion and exclusion criteria are shown in the

Table 2.

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Table 2

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Topics Inclusion criteria Exclusion criteria

Population

Age

Typically developing school

children

8 -17 years

Elementary, middle school

or upper- middle school

1-7 years

Exposure Bullying emotional,

physical, and relational

Articles that only include

cyberbullying

Outcome

Personal Coping strategies,

behaviour patterns,

Articles that only include

interventions by

professionals or family

support

Design Qualitative (empirical) Quantitative Empirical

studies

Publications Peer -reviewed, academic

journals, systematic reviews

in English

reports, books and other

non-academic articles in

other languages

Year 2010-2020 Articles before 2010

3.3 Search procedure

The database search for this systematic literature review began in February 2020. As shown in

figure 1, the databases used for the search were ERIC, PsycINFO, and Scopus. In the database

Eric, the Thesaurus search was performed, in combination with free search terms, while in

Psych INFO and Scopus databases only free search terms were used in advanced search options.

All the searches were limited to scholarly articles published in the English language. The search

words used in the database ERIC were “bullying or harassment or teasing” AND “coping

strategies or coping skills or coping or cope” AND “school "Bullying" AND "Elementary

schools" AND "Middle schools" AND "coping strategies" OR "coping skills".” The search gave

66 results. The search words for psych INFO were “school bullying” AND “coping strategies

in students”,” which turned out 53 articles.

The search terms used for Scopus were “Coping measures OR strategies

“AND “Bullying” in AND “schools” “coping AND experience”.” The initial databases search

identified 165 articles; and were screened for titles and abstracts, 15 remaining articles were

12

screened for the inclusion criteria. The remaining 10 full-text articles were further screened

for eligibility, 3 were excluded during the data extraction process. The three excluded studies

emphasized more on stress and coping strategies, related to reasons and factors other than

bullying and peer victimization at school such as examination, peer-pressure, depression and

competition etc. However, there was some material related to bullying in these studies.

Figure 1 Flow chart showing the selection process of the articles

The remaining seven articles were included in the narrative synthesis and

summary. Seven articles were identified that answered the research questions and matched the

inclusion and exclusion criteria; these were qualitative evaluations of bullying experiences

and the coping strategies or behaviours employed by the school going children and

adolescents. These articles were published between 2009 and 2020 in journals related to

bullying, harassment, and peer victimization.

Total number of records from combined databases

(n = 165)

Records screened for titles and abstracts (n = 165)

Records excluded based on titles and abstracts

(n = 150)

Full-text articles excluded (coping strategies used for

reasons other than bullying) (n =3)

Full-text articles assessed for eligibility (n =10)

Studies included in qualitative synthesis

(n = 7)

ERIC PsychINFO SCOPUS

Records screened with inclusion criteria (n=15)

Duplicates removed (n=5)

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3.4 Data Extraction

The extraction protocol for full-text articles has been presented in a table in Appendix A. The

information that has been extracted included title of the article, authors, year of publication,

country where the study took place, aim or the purpose of the study, research questions, study

design, general information about the participants (number, age, gender, personality

traits),recruitment procedure of the participants, type of school, type of bullying, definition of

bullying, situation for bullying, coping strategies for bullying, practical implications of the

study, limitations and conclusions discussed in these articles and quality assessment criteria.

3.5 Quality Assessment

Quality assessment of the included articles was performed using the CASP checklist for

qualitative research (CASP, 2018), adjusted to fit the context of this review. An overview of

the Quality Assessment is presented in a table in Appendix B.

3.6 Data analysis

Data analysis was performed during and after the data extraction. An identification number

was assigned to each study (as shown in a table in Appendix B) and was used onwards instead

of referencing. Information about the methodology and the data in the studies for bullying was

thoroughly analysed, to get an overview of what types of bullying encounters that reported,

how the encounters were coped with, and how they were questioned by the researchers in

these studies. No coding or analysis software was used during the procedure. The first stage of

the analysis consisted of engaging in repeated immersive reading of the entire verbatim

transcripts to gain a thorough understanding of its contents. In the second stage the citations

from the interviews were read thoroughly, and the meaning units were highlighted. In the

third stage the meaning units were summarised to more specific statements. Following, these

statements were coded and put into their respective themes (as shown in Table 3). The codes

and themes were derived from the 68 items from WCCL (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). For

example, retaliation was taken from ‘stood my ground and fought for what I wanted ’,

seeking social assistance was derived from ‘talked to someone who could do something about

the situation’, relaxation was formed from ‘came up with a couple of different solutions to the

problem’ and self-blamed was derived from ‘criticized or lectured myself. ‘To answer the

second research question, questions, and statements to describe bullying to the participants,

used by the researchers were analysed and the bullying situations reported in the context of

those questions were also analysed. There were no descriptions or definitions of the term

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‘Bullying’ found in the seven studies reviewed for this systematic review. For bullying

situations content analysis was performed which consisted of three steps (see Table 3). The

content from the transcripts was read thoroughly. The meaning units consisting of responses

related to the actual incidents or situations of bullying were colour coded. And finally, these

codes were placed in more specific themes.

Table 3 Examples of Themes for Coping Strategies derived through Content Analysis

Study Citations Codes Themes

1 ‘I always stop because then if you get

into a fight you get suspended or you

get in trouble from your parents and all

that, so I think ahead when I’m getting

mad’.

Keeping control of

the emptions

Self-Control

2 ‘When I started to learn bakery, I was

new there, they were all babes there

and I was such a country girl and I

knew that they didn’t like me. Actually, I

was just such a quiet student and I

didn’t do pretty much anything.’

Cursing or blaming

oneself

Self-blame

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4.Results

4.1 An overview of the Quality Assessment

There was a precise aim given for six of (one, two, three, four, five, and six) studies that were

included for the review. Only one study (seven) did not mention a well-defined aim or a

research question. An appropriate qualitative approach and qualitative research design was

clear in all seven studies. The ways of data collection were mostly observations, records,

structured and semi-structured interviews, that were audio and video taped.

In all the studies the sample population consisted of participants who were

victims of bullying or peer harassment either at the time of the study or in the past. Therefore,

a purposeful sample of voluntary participants was used in studies one, three, four, five and

six. In contrast, a convenience sample due to the non-availability of voluntary participants,

was used in studies two and seven. However, the relationship of the researcher to the topic has

not been defined in any of the studies. There was a clear and detailed description of the

technique and steps involved for data analysis and sufficient data was provided to support the

findings of all the studies. Consent for participation was taken from the participants or the

guardians and some concerned institutes. However, there was no mention of the consent for

the research to take place for any of the studies. At the end of each study specific findings

were given along with its value and significance to the stakeholders.

The comparison was made based on the percentage of criteria the articles

fulfilled on the CASP (2018) checklist. Five of the articles are considered to have good

quality (80% of the quality criteria fulfilled), one article is of moderate quality (50% quality

criteria fulfilled) and two articles were of low quality (<50% of the quality criteria fulfilled).

Since the remaining number of articles after the inclusion and exclusion criteria in this

systematic literature review was small, therefore, no articles were excluded due to low quality.

The quality assessment overview is shown in a table in Appendix B.

4.2 General Characteristics of the studies

Out of the seven studies included in this systematic literature review, two were conducted in

the USA, two in Australia, two in Taiwan and one in Estonia. The participants for all the

studies belonged to public schools from primary to the high school level. Whereas, two

schools were vocational schools (two, four). Data from three studies were collected from

schools located in economically disadvantaged areas (three, five and six). For the other

studies, there is the economic situation of the schools or the area is not mentioned. ( see Table

in Appendix C).The recruitment of the participants for most of the studies (one, four, five and

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six) shows some similar features, such as the participants were victims of either long or short

term bullying and were located by the school teachers, administrators, heads and counselors or

even parents through observations or school records. One study (three) has used a

convenience sample, i.e., participants with easier access for the interview. One study has only

interviewed students to know the increase in dropouts from a vocational school (two), and

finally, one study (seven) does not specify how they sampled the interviewees. In all the

studies, the average age of the participants ranged between 9-15 years, apart from one study

(six) in which the highest age range was up to 18 years.

4.3 Reasons for Bullying

The most commonly present types of bullying were verbal and physical abuse, whereas

relational abuse was also notified in studies one and two. Three studies did not mention any

personality traits of the victims that were seen to be targeted by the bullies (one, three and

seven), whereas the study two shows that victims of quiet and submissive nature were

targeted more. Also, students that were unfit for a group were often subjected to bullying.

Study four mentions students of smaller and weaker physiques were more vulnerable to

bullying. Moreover, students with disabilities were often targeted. A lot of students were

victimized due to their race, colour, appearance, size, clothes or even skin condition, less

intelligent or smart students as well as more intelligent students were equally bullied. Siblings

with disabilities and family characteristics were also a reason for bullying for some students

(five).

4.4 Main Findings

The self-reported strategies used by the students to handle bullying distinctly fall into the

problem-focused and emotion-focused categories. However, only three studies (one, three and

six) out of the seven mentioned their use (as shown in table 5). Self -control, compliance,

retaliation, verbal aggression, and victimization are all problem-focused strategies.

Meanwhile, relaxation, concealment, self-blame, and drug abuse are emotion -

focused strategies (one). Whereas, seeking social support and distancing were both used as

problem-focused and emotion-focused strategy concurrently. In study three all the strategies

used were based on problem-focused approach, whereas strategies were not specified as

emotion-focused or problem -focused in study six.Twleve themes of coping strategies were

identified used by the victims in schools, during or after the occurrence of a bullying situation.

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The themes are explained in detail below. Quotations from the student interview citations

have been used to examine the results.

1.Self -Control

Self-control defines holding back emotions or exerting restraints. Students have often

explained how much they wanted to react and fight back to end the unpleasant encounter with

the bully, but they just feared that it might escalate the problem (one, five, six, seven). There

had been times when they wanted to show a power equal to their bully, but they often

controlled their anger and aggression due to some reason.

A student reported I always stop because then if you get into a fight you get suspended

or you get in trouble from your parents and all that, so I think ahead when I’m getting mad (one).

Another student stated, It feels like I just want to beat them up or something, but I can’t do that

because I’ll get suspended and get F’s, if you get F’s, you have less of a chance to get a job. (one)

2. Compliance

Some students explained using compliance to end the bullying situation they were going

through (one, three, five). These behaviours included giving up, being more submissive and

accepting what the bully was saying about them and mostly agreeing with the bully to end the

situation. One student state, you are not encouraging it. You’re not giving them anything to ... you’re

not encouraging them (one). In the same study it was reported: If you want people to stop calling

you names. they say you fat, say, Yeah, I’ve been fat for like, ten years of my whole life.

3.Relaxation

Students mentioned many different activities that they used, either to calm themselves or to

relieve stress during and after bullying incidents (one, four and five). Mainly they talked about

crying, breathing exercises, drawing, listening to music, reading a book, or even using

mindfulness and distraction techniques. In study five, a victim stated, I usually draw a picture

because I am really good at that and I go back after the situation has passed.

4. Retaliation

Standing up for oneself, fighting back verbally and physically, showing aggression, counter-

attacking bullies were some of the prevalent retaliating techniques used by many students

(one, three, four, five, six, seven). In study one a student responded to this as, You kind of give

the bully the power um and ... you can stick up for yourself and show you’re as strong as a bully. You

18

just either are not showing it or you’re scared. According to many students, fighting back made

them more powerful and helped to end the situation.

A victim added, I feel being targeted is unfair. I believe I have the right to stand on

the same ground with them. Thus, I stood up to fight back. The thought of fighting back emerged as a

result of being ridiculed for a long time (four).

5. Seeking Assistance

The technique seeking assistance was the most commonly found in all the studies (one, three,

four, five, six, seven) apart from just one (two) study in Estonia, in which the participants

mentioned being fearful of informing their families or the school. It included seeking help or

informing parents, siblings, or other close relatives of the family. Approaching friends or

classmates were also common among students. Very often students sought help from teachers,

administrators, counselors, or other school authorities.

In some cases, informing parents and teachers was helpful to many students as

they got rescued from the bully by the assistant. A 10-year-old male stated, I talked to my dad

about [the bullying] and he helped me out tremendously…he told me that there’s going to be some

bullies out there…he said start speaking up, tell your teachers. (one)

But mostly school authorities had either failed to intervene or overlooked such

problems in the schools. Another student in the same study revealed, I react [to bullying] by

going to tell someone and, if they’ve been bullied before, then they know the situation and they can

help. That’s how I react. I tell someone who knows about bullying.

7. Distancing

This strategy was used by most of the participants in studies one, two, three, five and seven.

Some participants thought that it was a better idea to stay at a distance from their bullies or to

avoid coming in contact with them in at all. They would try their best to escape and evade

their bullies or places where they might come across them. Victims reported letting the

bullying happen, ignoring it, walking away, or just letting it go. A participant who was bullied

already in the basic school says that she had to leave her hometown and choose some

vocational school further away, because those girls who bullied her in basic school went to the

nearest vocational school (four). Sometimes they reported “running away” as an effective way

of ending a stressful incident. In study one, a participant stated that, and then at recess and

lunch, when I went outside and I would see them, and then I would just try and walk away.

19

6. Concealment

This strategy included hiding feelings or the actual event from everyone. It is most evidently

seen in the studies one, two and seven. In typical cases the participants mentioned being

secretive about their feelings due to shame, embarrassment and fear of being bullied or being

harmed by their bullies or by school authorities (in terms of getting suspended) or by the

parents (getting reprimanded) or for other reasons. They thought it was best not to share their

experiences or incidents with anyone and keeping their feelings and emotions inside to avoid

future bullying. For example, an eighth-grade boy felt that, look like they can take it, but deep

inside they are really hurt, and they just don’t say anything (one).

In another study it was explained that most of the subjects experienced

harassment as private personal events; none of the boys reported these incidents to the

teaching staff. They explained how ‘‘telling’’ is not an option because of fears that the teacher

would then tell their parents—or that they would not be taken seriously by their teacher.

In study one, a student said, some try to hide their feelings...so people won’t pick on them anymore’.

Another child said, ‘I just try to keep it in, so I won’t say anything to nobody.

8. Verbal Aggression

Studies one and three show the use of verbal aggression to cope with the bullying situation.

Students reported that yelling, screaming at, and verbally abusing the bully, to end the

bullying situation was always helpful. The participants further added that sometimes the

bullying became very difficult to manage and nothing seemed to work and that was the time

when they made use of this coping mechanism.

A girl said, the other day someone was getting on my nerves so bad I couldn’t take it

anymore and I yelled at them. Like I couldn’t keep it any longer and I had to yell at them. (one)

Another student reported, ‘It may sometimes get so worse that one starts acting like a bully himself.

“Sometimes you get so mad, you say mean things to them so then you could become the bully instead

of them, pretty much. Another victim reported, I get really mad or I just say something and then they

say something back and that makes me even madder. (one)

9. Self-Blame

Some victims believed that it was their fault that they were bullied or something in them

might have annoyed the bully, so they must have done something that caused other people to

victimize them.

20

This strategy was described infrequently by the victims in the studies (one). A victim

narrated: When I started to learn bakery, I was new there, they were all babes there and I was such a

country girl and I knew that they didn’t like me. I was just such a quiet student and I didn’t do pretty

much anything.

10. Victimization

Some victims in study four reported using this technique. They often became bullies to stop

bullying. A student reported that he could not end his miserable situation of being the victim

always and he thought of doing something to help himself, otherwise, he would have been

continually bullied for his entire life. He explained: For me, I think that perhaps I can learn and

imitate the bullies' behaviours so that I can follow their behaviors and say curse words to others who

are also bullied by them. It may make me feel better.

Some of them described it as transfer of target from one victim to another.

I simply wanted to transfer the target of victimization. I realized that, when I began to bully someone

else, they (the original bullies) would transfer their target to that one. Then, I would not be their

primary target. They victimized others when they could not control the situation and when they

thought that there was no other way to end it. The screamed and yelled and even engaged in

physical fights to cope with the stress or the bullying incident.

11.Self- Harm

This is one of the most negative approaches to deal with bullying among all the other

approaches. Only victims in two studies (two and five) were seen to use this strategy. Victims

reported that harming themselves made them relieved of stress and anger that was caused by

bullying.

12. Drug Abuse

This coping method is also one of the harmful methods among all the others. Only victims

from study five reported using this method to ease their stress and to escape bullying

encounters. They reported depending on drugs and using alcohol to escape the pain the they

suffered from after the bullying encounter.

21

Table 5 Coping Strategies employed by Victims

IN Self-control Compliance Relaxation Retaliation Seeking

Assistance

Distancing Concealment Verbal

aggression

Self-

blame

Victimization Self-harm Drug

Abuse

1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

2 ✓ ✓

✓

3 ✓

✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

4 ✓ ✓ ✓

✓

5 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

6 ✓ ✓ ✓

7 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

22

4.5 Definitions of Bullying

Bullying was not defined by the researchers to the participants at any time, in any of the seven

studies. Defining bullying may have yielded different responses from the ones that have been

given in the studies. It could help develop a further understanding of what the participants

understood by the term ‘bullying’ and the contextual background of the situations.

4.6 Bullying Situations

The open-ended responses of the participants that consisted of content related to the

description of the bullying encounters or situations were divided into two broad categories a)

different locations and b) different reasons. However, they were not mentioned in every

article. Table 6 shows the studies in which the bullying situations were discussed by the

participants.

4.7 Different locations for bullying

In four studies (two, three, five and seven) students had reported about how they were

victimized in different areas of the school and how these areas were chosen by the bullies to

assist in the act of bullying. (see Table 6) These areas included classrooms during and after

lectures, toilets (mainly girls’ toilets), playgrounds, corridors, dormitories, and hostel rooms.

A student reported that, “ One time when I was playing soccer with my friends and other

people and someone wanted to play with us but someone didn’t want him to, and I said come

on let him play it won’t hurt anyone and the other guy said shut up to me, and I told the guy

just play, it won’t hurt you.”( see table in Appendix E)

4.8 Different Reasons for bullying

The participants in the studies (three, four and five) gave many reasons as to why they were

bullied and why some victims appeared more vulnerable to the bullies. They explained that

they or their friends were victimised due to different colour, race, gender, clothing, disability

or medical condition, family background (if someone belonged to a lower-income family)

sibling having a disability, being more intelligent or less intelligent, for one’s behaviour or

personality and even when someone was trying to save a friend from being bullied.. For

example a participant narrated, “I had a medical condition in my leg that went on for a year

and a half but my ‘friend’ didn’t seem to get that so after weeks of him kicking my leg and

tripping me up I finally turned around and punched him so hard in the chest and cracked his

rib.”

23

Table 6 Bullying situations in different studies

IN Different Locations Different Reasons

1 - -

2 Classrooms,

Playgrounds, corridors

-

3 Dormitories, hostels, The difference in ethnicity,

intelligence, disability of

the victim trying to save

friends.

4

Family background of the

victim

Personal characteristics of

the victim

5 Classrooms,

Playgrounds, corridors

Absence of teachers

6 - -

7 Playgrounds, toilets

- Not mentioned

24

5. Discussion

This systematic review was conducted to review empirical articles based on qualitative

methodology published in the 2009-2020, that have analyzed school bullying. Seven studies

were identified that qualitatively explored coping strategies used by children in schools in

different bullying situations. The studies cover countries with high economic status, across the

globe from Australia, Taiwan, Estonia to the USA and therefore, there were many cultural

similarities found in these studies. This review can offer several unique contributions to the

field of coping with bullying in schools.

According to the results, coping strategies such as self-control, relaxation,

concealment, and compliance were used by the victims to handle everyday problems whereas

seeking assistance, distancing, retaliation, victimization, self-harm and drug abuse were used

in more threatening situations, which is in line with the studies by Lazarus (1999).

Results further indicate that students employed both problem-focused and emotion focused

strategies, but problem-focused strategies were more commonly used to address bullying, but

with limited success. This finding demands additional research in future to determine why

individuals felt that they were unsuccessful while using problem-focused to solve problems

related to bullying, to meet better results in future.

Furthermore, the results show that many students discussed seeking assistance from

others, as both an emotion-focused and problem-focused perspective, as they looked for a

friend, a classmate or a relative to seek emotional support when they were undergoing stress

and pain from a bullying situation which is similar to studies conducted by Folkman and

Lazarus (1986).Whereas some students in the results, also described using this coping

method to seek help from others, so that they could intervene and play a role to get them rid

of the bully. Kochenderfer-Ladd and Skinner showed similar results in 2002. Moreover, the

results of this study suggest that children’s coping is a complex phenomenon that may need to

be examined, that accounts a simultaneous use of multiple strategies by analysing how

different strategies are used together and the effectiveness of various combinations of coping

strategies. In addition, the results of this study further demonstrate that ‘distancing’ has been

used to avoid interaction with the bully. Many victims believed to be distant from the bully,

which was an effective way of escaping any bullying situation. At the same time, it was an

effective strategy to overcome stress, anxiety, and fear by keeping oneself out of sight of the

bullies.

Lazarus (1999) stated that many victims reported that some coping measures were

more successful in ending the bullying encounter and the stress it created, for different

25

bullying situations.Similarly,self-control, concealment and ignoring the bully were more

frequently practiced strategies as shown by the results of this preview, especially, when the

bullying took place in a classroom or in the presence of a teacher or a staff member. This

suggests that school staff does not assist the victim, in fact, it acts as a support for the bully,

who is encouraged by the attitude of the staff, and hence, repeats the bullying behavior.

However, some more harmful coping strategies such as self-blame, victimization, self-harm

and drug addiction are very infrequently employed by participants in these studies, which

shows a use of less harmful coping methods in the last ten years.

Many victims in this study reported that emotion-focused coping was often

ineffective in solving problems related to bullying, which was a consistent finding with the

studies conducted by Ben-Zur (2005). Additionally, according to the victims in the results of

this study, the coping strategies were unsuccessful when they showed intense emotions such

as crying or expressing anger verbally in the presence of the bully, probably because it made

the bully feel more powerful than before. This understanding demonstrated an awareness of a

bully’s motives and recognition of why certain emotional responses were unlikely to be

effective. Despite this understanding, victims may have trouble controlling their emotions

during a bullying situation. Some students discussed emotion-focused coping through the use

of stress reducing exercises or relaxation strategies that involved calming down during a

bullying incident or diverting one’s mind at home after a tough day at school. Both boys and

girls generally reported these strategies to be helpful in reducing stress and regulating their

emotions.

The findings of this study also indicate that the most frequently used coping

strategies were retaliation, seeking social help and distancing. Victims of traditional bullying

have also been noted as often reluctant to seek support by informing adults. One apparent

reason for this can be due to the fear of getting reprimanded by school authorities, parents or

being more bullied in future, by annoying the bullies which has also been observed by Naylor

et al in 2001. This may be a sign of the changing trends in the bullying world. It might be of

interest to educationists or professionals who plan interventions for such cases to know who

the victim confides in and determining who they find most helpful to resolve a bullying

situation as many of the participants reported that they felt comfortable with their parents and

peers more than the school authorities. Another interesting finding of this research is the fact

that many students across different cultures reported carefree and non-helpful attitude of the

school authorities, which included school staff, counsellors and even school heads in some

cases. Participants stated that even after reporting about the bully and the incident several

26

times no action was taken by the school and the complaint was often curbed, and this can be

one of the significant reasons of increase in school bullying cases and also draws our attention

to the weak policy making and implementation of rules in schools. This is an indication of

the existing gap between the empirically based bullying interventions and what is delivered in

schools (Patton et.al ,2017).

Finally, this study clearly shows that all types of harassment and bullying

victimization occur across both supervised and unsupervised places within the school

premises. Although strict surveillance is an obvious and common measure that many schools

take in this regard, but schools should also introduce and improve more planning and

intervention in this regard. Where school personnel is required to be more vigilant especially

around children who are vulnerable to peer abuse, student volunteers, mediators and peers can

act as support for assistance.

5.2 Methodological issues

This review could have been more extensive by increasing the number of databases used for

the research. Another methodological issue with this review is the need for peer review to

avoid the researcher bias especially during the analysis of the qualitative data. Peer review

would have been required during several steps of this systematic literature review. After

finalising the search terms and performing database search, a single reviewer applied

inclusion and exclusion criteria to the found studies. Some inclusion and exclusion criteria

such as year and language of publication or setting of the intervention were easy to assess and

the decision making based on these criteria was simple. Other inclusion and exclusion criteria,

especially criteria related to the quality of the study, were more complex.

Most of the studies included in this review did not discuss the ethical

considerations for the conducted studies other than obtaining consent for the interviews from

the participants, school authorities and parents, no formal consent or approval has been

obtained for any authoritative institutes to carry out the research. Additionally, the

relationship of the researcher with research has not been disclosed in any of the studies

undertaken for the review, which leaves a question mark on what interests the researcher

could gain from the research.

The definitions for the term ‘bullying’ or any explanation of this term have not

been included in any of the studies, therefore, it gives no knowledge about how the students

were explained and questioned about the bullying experiences. This fact leaves the victims’

understanding and perspective of the term ‘bullying’ unknown. Hence, it is difficult to

27

understand how researchers investigated the matter, what kind of questions elicited the given

responses, as bullying definitions may vary from person to person and from one culture to

another. Moreover, determining the circumstances, timings, behaviours, and causes are

essential aspects of bullying that can only be interpreted by the victim. Victims

‘understanding and interpretation of the term ‘bullying’ can reveal necessary information

about their choices and preferences for the use of specific coping strategies. Age and gender

differences can give more in-depth insights into how they view bullying. Victims’ agreement

or disagreement with the researchers’ definitions can remove any ambiguities in the analysis

of the data.

5.3. Limitations

One limitation of this study is the degree to which the results can be generalized because of

the qualitative methodology. In particular, the very small-sized samples studied in these

researches do not allow the findings to be applied to the population at large. These studies

only cover high -income countries therefore, no lower or middle-income countries have been

included which also makes it difficult to generalize the data. Extensive research has been

conducted on bullying and victimisation in Western and Eastern high-income countries, far

less research has been done in low and middle -income countries (Zych, Ortega, & Del Rey,

2015).

Besides, the studies do not give access to the actual interviews used for

gathering data, which makes it difficult to analyze the responses of the participants,

contextually. Moreover, these studies do not reveal the background information such as

ethnicity or family background of the participants which could have given a different context

for the bullying situations.

6. Conclusion

The present study investigates into the coping strategies employed by victims of bullying in

schools, to end the situation or to manage stress. Observations provide essential insights into

these coping mechanisms. These strategies vary depending on different bullying situations.

Future qualitative studies in this area will allow elucidating these mechanisms in the setting of

perspectives of the victims about bullying and details of the bullying experiences. This will

not only provide a strong foundation for the research and interventions but will also ensure

positive social and academic outcomes for students.

28

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Whitney I, Smith PK. 1993. A survey of the nature and extent of bully/victim problems in junior/middle

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34

Appendix A: Extraction Protocol for the Full-text screening

General Characteristics Name of the article

Authors

Year

Title Journal

Country

Background Information

study purpose

research questions

Theoretical backgrounder

Purpose of the study

Research question

Methodology

Study design

Number of participants

Gender and age of participants

Recruitment of participants where and how

Types of school

Description of bullying Type of bullying

Bullying definition

Bullying situation

Coping strategies

Results /Outcomes Data analysis

Findings

Discussion Limitations

Practical implications

Quality Assessment Items on Quality Assessment Tool CASP

(2018)

35

Appendix B An overview of quality assessment of the studies

IN Aim Appropriate

qualitative

approach

used

Appropriate

research

design used

Ways of data

collection

Recruitment

of

participants

appropriate

Relationship

of the

researcher

defined

Rigorous data

analysis

Ethics addressed Clear findings Value of research

1 Yes, yes yes 30 mins Interviews with

structed and semi-

structed questions were

used

purposeful

sample, the

school

selected

participants

who were

chronic

victims of

bullying.

No yes, there was an in-

depth analysis, and

the steps were

defined well

Only the interviews

were approved

yes yes, it has been discussed

how it contributes and ads

on to the existing studies

2 Yes Yes Yes Observations,

interviews and records

Purposeful

sample of

voluntary

participants of

victims.

No Not enough details

on the analysis, but

detailed results

Ethics for

participant were

addressed properly

Yes No

3 Yes Yes Yes Audio-taped structured

and semi/structured

interviews

A

convenience

sample of

victims was

used

No To some extent with

defining some steps

of the procedure

Can be useful for Australian

government /school

administration and

counsellors all over the

world

4 Yes Yes Yes Audio-taped structured

and semi_strucutred

interviews

A purposeful

sample of

bully- victims

was used

No yes, the procedure

for analysing data

has been explained

in detail.

Yes, for some

matters

Yes Yes, good for people

addressing bullying issues.

36

5 Yes Yes Yes Audio and video-taped

interviews

Purposeful

sample of

voluntary

victims of

long-term

victimization

No Yes, but not very

detailed

Consent from the

parents and an

institution was

sought

Yes Good for people addressing

victimization of students in

schools

6 Yes Yes Yes Audio and video-taped

interviews

Purposeful

sample of

Victims of

bullying were

used that were

hard to locate

so the

concerned

schools helped

in finding

them.

No Detailed analysis

with the steps of the

procedure

Consent was

obtained from a

number of institutes

Yes It is valuable for students,

practitioners and

governments dealing with

bullying

7 No

research

question

or

hypothesis

given

though it

is evident

what the

research

aim was

Yes Yes Audio-taped structured

and semi_strucutred

interviews

Convenience

sample

No Yes, it was a

detailed analysis

with some steps

involved

Consent from the

participant and

some institutions

was obtained

Yes Yes, it mentions its value for

people working on issues

regarding sexual harassment

in schools.

IN* study number

37

Appendix C General characteristics of the studies

IN* Authors (Year) Country Participants Type of

School

Recruitment

procedure of

Participants

Type of bullying Characteristics of the victims

1 Tenenbaum, L. S., Varjas, K.,

Meyers, J., & Parris, L. (2011)

USA 102

9-15 years 64 males ,38

females

primary public

school in south western USA

participants were

identified by school administrators,

teachers, school

counsellors, or parents/guardians as

perceived chronic

victims of bullying

Verbal, physical and

relational

Not mentioned

2 Beilmann, M. (2017) Estonia 5

15-16 years 3 females 2 males

Estonian

vocational school

new dropping out

entries in vocational school

Verbal, physical, relational,

property damage

Quiet, submissive unfit for the group, isolated

3 Eleni Didaskalou, Grace

Skrzypiec, Eleni Andreou and Phillip Slee (2017)

Australia 171

11-15 years 56% females, 44%

males

4 middle schools in

a lower socio/economic

area

Participants were

sampled on the basis of convenience

Verbal, physical and

relational

Not mentioned

4 Yu-Hsien Sunga, b

(2018)

Taiwan 10

14 years 2 females, 8 males

high school and

vocational school

participants who

fulfilled the criteria of being victims and

being bullies, also

with the help of teacher observations.

Verbal and physical people with smaller physiques, weaker

interpersonal relationships, and/or disabilities, and they do not or seldom fight back to bullies

38

5 Graham J. Mackay,

Timothy A Carey and Bruce Stevens. (2011)

Australia 3

11-15 years 1 female, 2 males

elementary school,

public high school and special

education high

school (economically

disadvantaged

areas)

.

Participants exposed to long term peer

victimization, found

by the school

Verbal and physical different in terms of race, colour, appearance

size, clothing, skin condition, loners, isolated, unfriendly, low in terms of intelligence, smarter

than the bullies, differences in families, like

with siblings having disabilities.

6 Caroline B. R. Evans ·

Katie L. Cotter · Paul R. Stokowski (2017)

USA 22

11-18 years 11 females. 11

males

middle and high

schools of rural counties in North

Carolina

(economically disadvantaged

areas)

Participants with a

history of bullying victimization were

screened by school

heads.

Verbal and physical Participants with a history of fighting, shop

lifting more aggressive or antisocial compared to the average adolescent.

7 Yu-Ting Chang, RN, MSN, Mark Hayter, PhD, MSc, BA,

RN, and Mei-Ling Lin, RN,

MSN (2010)

Taiwan 47 10-12 years

20 females, 27

males

two largest public schools in a district

of Taiwan

Not specified Verbal and physical Not mentioned

*IN- Identification number of the study

39

Appendix D: Types of Bullying and the Coping Strategies employed

Table

Overview of bullying types and coping strategies

IN Type of Bullying Coping Strategies employed

1 Verbal, physical and

relational Problem focused and emotion-focused approach such as self-control,

avoiding, agreeing with the bully, listening to music to calm down, crying

or practicing deep breathing to relax, stand up to the bully, self-defence,

seeking social support, tension-reduction/externalizing, detachment,

internalizing, focus on the positive, and self-blame.

2 Verbal and physical Silence, ignoring, detaching, isolating, dropping out, changing schools

and self-blame

3 Verbal and physical seeking social support, sticking up for oneself, nonchalance, ignoring,

reducing tense emotions/ assertiveness, learning how to deal with

bullying, problem-focusing, escapism, distancing, submission,

internalising, and externalizing

4 Verbal and physical Ignoring, avoiding, counterattacking, crying, seeking adult assistance and

imitating bullies by attacking others

5 Verbal and physical Seeking help, running away, ignoring, nonchalant, retaliating, bullying

others, drug usage, self-harm, mindfulness, distraction, (techniques)

avoiding school, quitting school, getting suspended and changing school.

6 Verbal, physical and

relational

Emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping approaches;

seeking adult assistance, confiding in parents, ignoring, and fighting back

7 Verbal and physical Silence (keeping matters hidden), standing up for oneself, retaliating,

ignoring, bullying others, distancing and seeking assistance

40

Appendix E: Thematic Analysis of ‘Bullying Situations’

Bullying Situations

Different locations

Different reasons

IN Meaning units Codes Themes 1. Coping

strategies…

This study only describes feelings, emotions, reactions and coping strategies of the

participants, therefore no description of the bullying situations or encounters.

__ __

2.Dropping out… All participants stated that bullying does not occur only between the classes but also

during the classes. However, Johannes stresses that the worst time in school was

during the breaks between lessons when teachers were not present and the bullies felt

free to use any kind of physical and mental violence against their victims. Lars

describes how the bullying takes place in the school setting: It is like picking on you

Other interviews confirm that corridors are popular places for bullying activities,

which is very similar to bullying in regular high school. However, bullying victims in

high schools usually can go home after lessons and have some break, whereas bullies

and victims in many vocational schools often live together in the same dormitories,

and the bullies follow the victims even to their bedrooms, which actually makes

matters worse. The dividing line between life in school (in the classroom) and life

outside school (after class)].,

Between and during

classes

Usually in corridors

Dormitories, bedrooms

Different locations

inside the school

(classrooms, corridors,

playgrounds, toilets,

dormitories, bedrooms)

3.Taking action… My friend was being bullied for being Asian and I told the bully to not be racist and

told the teacher. The teacher talked to the bully and it continued so my friend and I

told the principal and the bully got internally suspended. (Female, 14 years)

In primary school my best friend was being bullied by a guy in our class. She let it go

for a while but we could tell something was wrong. She talked to our close group of

friends and we decided that we would confront him and let him know what he was

doing was not right.

Getting bullied for race

Trying to save a friend

Different reasons

(ethnicity

,disability,intelligence)

Saving others

41

My friend’s presentation was being laughed at and I told them to stop. (Female, 13

years)

A small proportion of bystanders reported that on witnessing a threatening episode

between peers, they intervened in favour of the victims by telling the bullies to stop or

informing a teacher. As the following students put it:

In primary school my best friend was being bullied by a guy in our class. She let it go

for a while but we could tell something was wrong. She talked to our close group of

friends and we decided that we would confront him and let him know what he was

doing was not right.

One time when I was playing soccer with my friends and other people and someone

wanted to play with us but someone didn’t want him to, and I said come on let him

play it won’t hurt anyone and the other guy said shut it to me, and I told the guy just

play, it won’t hurt you. (Male, 13 years) Some participants reported that they had

relied on counterproductive externalising strategies in handling instances of bullying.

As the following students remarked:

I had a medical condition in my leg that went on for a year and a half but my ‘friend’

didn’t seem to get that so after weeks of him kicking my leg and tripping me up I

finally turned around and punched him so hard in the chest and cracked his rib. This

was the last time he verbally or physically abused me. (Female, 13 years) He wanted

to fight so I did. I won, then it stopped. (Male, 13 years)

I beat up a kid who was attacking my friends and I broke his nose. (Male, 14 years)

Some students acted against bullying by ignoring any threatening occasion,

downplaying its importance, letting it go, and continuing with everyday life. As the

following students stated:

Sometimes I get called names but I just ignore it. It does not happen very often.

(Female, 14 years)

I ignored them and they left. (Female, 14 years)

My friend was being called names, so I told her to ignore them. (Female, 13 years)

Defending themselves by reacting directly and making the bully aware of their

objection to being bullied and requesting that the bullying stop was another common

response made by participants

Trying to save peers

During matches in the

playground

Getting bullied for

medical reasons or

disabilities

Getting bullied while

trying to save a friend

42

4. Double trouble… Most bully-victims are initially potential victims. They regularly have conflicts with

peers because they provoke others and are unpleasant; subsequently, they gradually

suffer from physical, verbal, and/or relational aggression. Relevant internal factors

include the inability to understand others' expressions and feelings (n=11; 35%), poor

emotional control and behavioral self-regulation (n=9; 29%), and inappropriate

interpersonal interactions, such as either being egocentric or mocking other people

(n=24; 77%) “He (the bully-victim) is so clueless that he likes to imitate other peers

and echo whatever people have said or done. That's why these peers hate him” (T10).

“I am somehow hyperactive, and it is difficult to control my temper. I easily get

agitated and have conflicts with others. That's why they hate me”

Moreover, external factors, such as inappropriate parent–child interaction and

parenting (n=5; 16%), can potentially form victims' internal characteristics. “He (the

bully-victim) has a distant relationship with his parents. This may mean that he wants

to receive attention from others. However, he often uses some clueless and

inappropriate ways to attract others' attention so that others don't like him”

“She (the bully-victim's mother) often tells him (the bully-victim) that he should

defend himself against and counteract the problems he encounters. Thus, he usually

talks in sarcastic tones and language. Then, some peers, who are more overbearing

than him, may reject him

“He (the bully-victim) wanted to be dominant as a leader; thus, he recruited sidekicks

to attack others” (T15). “He (the bully-victim) would kick others' chairs. When other

people reacted to his behavior, he would say ‘Challenge me to a fight’ or threaten.

“Because I have interpersonal needs and I want to be a member of this group (bullies

group), I feel obligated to back up my friends when they ask me to. This is indeed

interpersonal pressure, but it seems to me that, if I do not provide some help for them,

it may not be the right decision

Getting bullied due to

ones own personality

Family reasons

Getting bullied due to

ones own behaviour

When bully wanted to be

leader or show dominance

Family background

Victim’s appearance and

personality

43

5. The insider’s… The first subtheme of being different referred to participants being bullied due to the

view that they were perceived by the bullies as being different in some way. All

participants reported that being different in terms of physical appearance provided

‘ammunition’ for the bullies. These differences included physical size (being ‘really,

really short’), clothing, and a skin condition. Interestingly, one participant noted that

one of the reasons her friend, who was also bullied, was different was due to race:

And they tease me about being [name]’s friend, because she’s different. She’s got

dark skin, and she’s tall, and she comes from Indonesia. What kind of other

opportunities would a bully need? There’s someone in my class that picks on the

disabled class because he thinks that they won’t do anything and unfortunately they

don’t but I once saw him bully someone and I told the teacher. (Male, 12 years) My

friend was being bullied for being Asian and I told the bully to not be racist and told

the teacher. The teacher talked to the bully and it continued so my friend and I told the

principal and the bully got internally suspended. (Female, 14 years) Two participants

also related being different in terms of intelligence, one for higher intellect and one

for lower intellect. As one participant noted: ‘One time I actually had a really weird

bullying session where they were bullying me for being smarter than they were.’

Differences in family served as another target for bullies. Two participants had

siblings with disabilities, which served to perpetuate the bullying they experienced:

They tease me about being different, because I

care for my brother. They tease me about having a brother who is like he is, because

he is also different [autistic disorder]. By trying to protect other victims of bullying

and thereby aligning themselves with other victims, two participants reported that this

resulted in them being bullied.

By trying to protect other victims of bullying and thereby aligning themselves with

other victims, two participants reported that this resulted in them being bullied. And

the way how it started with them, because I’ve like always been one of the people that

I can’t stand to see other people getting bullied, so I always have to help. I always tell

someone like to leave them alone, you think you’re so tough.

The female participant reported being subjected to such as being excluded from

games, while the other two participants did not as they tried their best to avoid seeing

or being around the bullies. Two participants were not bullied via electronic means

due to restriction to access to such sites and means (e.g. mobile phones).

As one participant stated: ‘It just depends on how the day goes. It’s just always

different, like it’s unpredictable.’ Two participants had experienced some form of

bullying since their first years of school. Some bullying occurred daily but there were

times when no bullying was experienced for much longer (up to a few months). They

Getting bullied due to

physical appearance

Getting bullied due to

clothing

Getting bullied due to race

Bullying the disabled

Bullying Asian students

Getting bullied due to the

level of intelligence

Getting bullied due to

siblings

Interrupting or trying to

save the victims from

being bullied

Being excluded during

games

44

would just play football or something and then some other days, if they saw me, they

would just pick on me. They had nothing to do.

The subtheme school relates to factors at the school level that impacted on the

participants’ level of peer victimisation. Two participants experienced bullying

exclusively at school and managed social relationships outside of school well, while

the other experienced bullying at both school and outside of school

In addition, the participants spoke about the location of the bullying: Usually out in

the playground because teachers have a lot more kids to look out for, so they’re not

always going to be looking where the bullies are. That’s usually when bullies go for it.

One participant noted that the type of bullying changed according to location and

presence of a teacher: Sometimes if it’s in class it’s verbal, and if teachers are near it’s

verbal, but if teachers are not there and it’s not in class, sometimes they use both

physical and verbal

They didn’t really pick on me with my friends, but when I went to the toilet or

something, or went to the canteen or something, whenever I left my friends, they

would just pick on me if they saw me. Having friends acted as both an emotional and

practical support, as one participant expressed: ‘Well my best friend was going around

Australia so she wasn’t there to stick up for me’ and ‘It’s pretty nice having a friend in

your class, but even if it’s only one’.

outside school

In the absence of teachers

in playgrounds

In the absence of teachers

Getting bullied in the

absence of friends

In the absence pf teachers

6. Getting victims… Only reactions and coping strategies have been given --- ----

7.Experiences of

sexual…

Physical harassment refers to activity concerning looking, leering, and making

unwanted sexual or genital contact. Some girls endured boys lifting their skirt, some

girls incurred boys’ sexual touching, and some girls caught boys peeping at the

outside of female toilet:

P: This past semester, I patrolled the school and saw some boys assembled on the

outside of female toilet. The top of that toilet has a crevice, so they climbed up on the

toilet to peep at girls in the toilet.

Additionally, there was one instance where physical harassment of a girl by another

girl was mentioned. A participant discussed her experience with a girl classmate

touching her pudendum:

B:Lasttime,Itoldher Iwashavingmyperiod. But, she still ‘‘shuan’’ (means touch) me

there. She is very lewd and very disgusting. She touches your BiBi (means girl’s

pudendum) everyday.

Within the group discussions, the emotional impact that the harassment brought on

was quite apparent to the girls. However, despite this, many of the girls said the boys

did not seem to think their behaviour caused distress:

Peeping inside girls’ toilet

In toilet

45

H: They do anything as they wish. They never consider our feelings.

Although the majority of experiences of physical harassment came from girls—

similar experiences were also recounted by some of the boys. The boys reported that

the majority of harassment came from other boys—often within physical games.

Boys’ genitals were the most common target that boys reported in the focus groups:

R: We often play ‘‘Aluba.’’ It means to collide with (gesturing towards genitals). Four

people lift one person, two lift the hands and two lift the legs, and then collide him

[push into] with a hard object. P: He either teased girls or stroked boys’ genitals.

Every time some guy walks past him, he will stroke the guy’s rump or genitals. He

mostly likes to touch my rump.

As with the girls, boys discussed how this type of behavior made them feel

uncomfortable. They disliked such behavior, especially the feeling of pain when

somebody seized his genitals:

M: So disgusting! I feel very strange and uncomfortable.

R: When he seizes me, sometimes it feels very painful.

Although they were reported less frequently than the various forms of harassment

behaviors among girls, a few boys experienced what they considered unwanted

sexualized forms of harassment from their female classmates:

L: Some girls expose boy’s underclothes. Sometimes he (means N) likes to wear

sagging pants. When he walks his pants will sag and show his underpants. If a girl

looks at this, she pulls down his pants. N: When the teacher is teaching us about

genital organs, some girls intentionally write down some boy’s name on the pictures

of boy’s genitals in their books to indicate that the organs belong to a certain boy.

Experiences of Verbal Sexual Harassment

During games

During a lecture