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No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

School bullying research has often focused on children, but neglected the parent's perspective. Little is known about how parents respond to their child's peer victimisation and how these responses are related to children's experiences. Thus, this thesis aimed to address three main research questions: (a) how do parents respond to their children's peer victimisation? (b) What factors are associated with parents' responses to their children's peer victimisation? (c) How are parents' responses related to children's experiences of peer victimisation? A mixed-methods sequential exploratory design, comprising of three stages, was utilised. Firstly, focus groups and interviews were conducted with parents to gain greater understanding of their perspective. The focus group/interview findings informed the content of parent and child questionnaires which were developed in a series of pilot studies, during stage two of the research. In the third stage, these questionnaires were administered to parents and children (aged I 1-12 years) to examine parental responses to peer victimisation, factors related to parental responses, and children's victimisation experiences. The findings suggested three categories of parental responses: supportive/problem solving, confrontational and avoidant. Parents' responses were related to their perceptions of how their child would cope, and their attitudes towards how schools/teachers deal with bullying. Additionally, parents' perceptions of their role in school bullying were influenced by what they thought a 'good' parent should do. Children's perceptions of avoidant and parental supportive/problem solving responses moderated the relationship between peer victimisation and loneliness; there was also an indirect relationship between perceived parental responses and peer victimisation, through child coping. This thesis concludes that in school bullying situations, parents form one element of a broader system, which also involves children and teachers. Thus, parentteacher communication and collaboration is vital and the importance of empowering parents to take a supportive/problem solving approach when helping their child is highlighted.

One of the main aims of this research was to determine the perceived long-term consequences of bullying behaviour in schools. Furthermore, this study examined individual's recollections of the nature and prevalence of bullying and experiences of other forms of violence throughout their life-course; in doing so the reliability of individual's retrospective accounts were also assessed. Further still, school pupil's experiences of bullying and exposure to violence and trauma was also examined, as were their typical behavioural responses to scenes of school bullying. This thesis presents the findings of three studies, focusing on individuals experiences of bullying in school, in a sample of undergraduate university students and post- primary school pupils. In Chapter One, a review of the literature surrounding bullying behaviour research is presented, in addition to an overview of the 'cycle of violence' hypothesis, which permeates all aspects of this research. Chapter Two provides an outline of the continuing debate concerning the use of retrospective in bullying behaviour research and a detailed review of all the scales utilised in the first study. The results of Study One are presented in Chapter Three, in which a short-term longitudinal study assessed the reliability and stability of participants (N = 824) memories, the nature of their life-course victimisation experiences and perceived negative consequences of such experiences. A qualitative approach was adopted in Study Two, involving a series of in-depth interviews with self-reported victims (N = 13) of child abuse, bullying in school and domestic violence, all of whom had previously taken part in the first quantitative study; the results of which are presented in Chapter Four. In Chapter Five, the questionnaire booklet was administered to a sample of post-primary pupils (N = 213), within the local area, to assess their experiences of bullying in school and evaluate their perceived 'rules' for behaviour according to their status group. Finally, a summary and discussion of the results are presented in Chapter Six. Results suggest that 31.1 % (N = 256) of university participants recalled having been bullied in school at some point, and a further 11.9% (N = 98) acknowledged having actively taken part in victimising other pupils at school, with individuals most commonly citing verbal bullying (i.e. name calling). Just over two in five victims (44%) stated that they attempted suicide, with the majority reporting more than one attempt. It was determined that 43.0% of victims reported having experienced abuse during childhood (i.e. physical abuse/neglect, sexual abuse, etc), 35.9% indicated that they had experienced bullying in later-life (i.e. workplace harassment); resulting in one in five participants (N = 53; 20.7%) revealing that they had experienced both abuse and further victimisation. Measures in the questionnaire booklet revealed that participants were more likely to experience depression, anger and hostility, compared to those with no experience of bullying in school. Over one in three 'victim only' participants reported a 'fearful' relationship style, and moreover reported the lowest mean scores relating to same and opposite sex self-esteem, but the highest levels regarding emotional loneliness and social isolation. Further still, symptornology analogues with PTSD were found in 11 % of victims. Finally, reliability analysis revealed that individual's recollections were both accurate and stable across the three data collection point (initial, 6 months post, and 12-14 months post). Reponses from the face-to-face interviews supported these findings with participants expressing how their experiences of bullying in school have affected many aspects of the adult life. Results from the schools based research revealed that 18.8% of pupils reported to be 'victim only' and a further 6.6% stated that they were both the victim and a perpetrator of bullying in school, with name calling and exclusion the most commonly cited forms of behaviours reported. With regards to pupil's experiences of violence, individuals reported experiencing 'vivid memories' recollections and feelings of distress in situations which remind victims of their experiences, leading to outbursts of anger and a general sense of wariness. Furthermore, 'bully only' pupils reported the highest overall mean on a measure of aggression, and on a measure of parenting style reported the highest means relating to 'indifference', 'over-control' and 'abuse'. Self- identified victims reported lowest levels of both same and opposite-sex self-esteem and general self-esteem; and highest levels of both emotional loneliness and social isolation.

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No description available.

Concerns have been raised about behaviour management and bullying in schools; this has led to an increase in relational approaches to conflict management. One relational approach to conflict management is restorative justice (RJ). The present study reviews the theoretical underpinnings of the RJ approach and evidence of its efficacy in the criminal justice system and educational contexts. Research has supported the efficacy of the approach in the criminal justice system, and has highlighted the effectiveness of RJ in developing empathy. Despite a lack of high quality research in school contexts, this approach is already being utilised in schools. Therefore, the literature review was followed by a study which aimed to investigate the efficacy of RJ in developing empathy and reducing behavioural difficulties in schoolchildren. 65 children attending a school using RJ approaches to behaviour management and 44 children attending a school using traditional punitive approaches completed selfreport measures of empathy and behaviour at baseline, and again four months later to examine the effects of RJ on empathy development and behavioural difficulties. In addition, the researcher identified children with low empathy and high behavioural difficulty scores in both schools and compared their empathy and behavioural difficulty scores at baseline and after four months. After controlling for baseline scores, there were no significant differences between the schools in terms of changes in empathy or behavioural difficulties. This was also the case when focusing on the subset of children who had low empathy and behavioural difficulties at baseline who may have been expected to have greater exposure to RJ approaches/interventions over the 4 month follow up period. Implications of the present study and limitations are discussed.

There is a body of research that emphasises the role that peers can have in either fuelling or preventing bullying behaviour. Bystanders typically reinforce bullying by joining in or passively watching (O'Connell, Pepler and Craig 1999). Social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner 1979) states that within a social group individuals are motivated to maintain a positive social identity and do so by adhering to group norms. Therefore, if bullying is normative within a group pupils are more likely to join in or passively watch (Duffy and Nesdale 2008; Gini 2006). This study evaluates the effectiveness of 'Defeat Bullying' (NSPCC 2007), a five week whole class anti-bullying curriculum. The overall aim of the curriculum was to create an anti-bullying group norm within the class. A pre-test, post-test non-equivalent groups quasi experimental design was employed, with an eight week follow up. Pupils aged 9-10 (year 5) from three schools in a predominately rural Local Authority (LA) in Yorkshire participated in the study (n = 69). School 1 received the intervention, School 2 received the intervention plus parental involvement and School 3 was the control group. Pupils' reported levels of bullying, attitudes towards bullying and knowledge of how to intervene in bullying situations were measured. Questionnaires regarding the pupils' difficult and prosocial behaviour were completed by the teachers. The impact of parental involvement on the effectiveness of the intervention was also explored. 'Defeat Bullying' (NSPCC 2007) did not have a statistically significant effect on any of the factors measured, which suggests there was no overall effect on the group norms regarding bullying. Furthermore, there was no statistically significant difference between School 1 and School 2 who received the intervention plus parental involvement. Possible reasons for the non significant results and the implications of this are discussed. The likelihood of changing group norms through the delivery of an anti-bullying curriculum is considered. The study raises questions in terms of whether or not parental involvement is important in anti-bullying interventions and if so what type of parental involvement is the most effective.