<p>Bullying can have serious consequences on everyone involved. Consequently it is important that school counselors are able to intervene. Thereby they need an unambiguous definition and knowledge about bullying that has been produced from research so they do not make mistakes that could lead to further damaging of the students. Thus the aim of this study was to examine how school counselors define bullying compared to the views held by scientists and students in secondary school. Through a review of previously done research the definitions of scientists and schoolchildren was summarized. To establish the school counselors’ definitions a qualitative interview based method was used. Data was collected by semi-structured interviews using an interview guide with open-ended questions. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed by the method of phenomenological concentration of its meaning. By the theory of logic-in-use and reconstructed logic the definitions of school counselors’, pupils and researchers was compared. Results showed that school counselors hold similar definitions to scientists and children but differ in some aspects. The results also indicate that the school counselors mainly have created their definitions through former experiences and knowledge and not through science and they also seem to experience difficulties in identifying bullying situations.</p>

Bullying can have serious consequences on everyone involved. Consequently it is important that school counselors are able to intervene. Thereby they need an unambiguous definition and knowledge about bullying that has been produced from research so they do not make mistakes that could lead to further damaging of the students. Thus the aim of this study was to examine how school counselors define bullying compared to the views held by scientists and students in secondary school. Through a review of previously done research the definitions of scientists and schoolchildren was summarized. To establish the school counselors’ definitions a qualitative interview based method was used. Data was collected by semi-structured interviews using an interview guide with open-ended questions. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed by the method of phenomenological concentration of its meaning. By the theory of logic-in-use and reconstructed logic the definitions of school counselors’, pupils and researchers was compared. Results showed that school counselors hold similar definitions to scientists and children but differ in some aspects. The results also indicate that the school counselors mainly have created their definitions through former experiences and knowledge and not through science and they also seem to experience difficulties in identifying bullying situations.