GIRL BULLYING

A Chronological Perspective Of Girl Bullying



TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION3

Overview3

Statement of Problem3

Purpose of the study3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW3

Defining Female Aggression3

General approaches to bullying behaviors3

Specific approaches to addressing relational aggression3

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY3

Research method3

Instrument3

Questionnaire3

Sample3

Data Analysis3

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS & RESULTS3

Analysis3

The bully group3

The Victim Group3

The bully-victim group3

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATION3

Conclusions3

Recommendations3

REFERENCES3

APPENDIX3

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Overview

Bullying was defined by Olweus (1994) as exposure to the negative actions of one or more persons repeatedly and over time. It encompasses a spectrum of aggressive actions, both physical and verbal. It can be direct (hitting, kicking, threatening, extortion) or indirect (spreading rumors, social exclusion) (Wolke, Woods, Bloomfield, & Karstadt, 2000). Bullying in school is a common problem internationally, with rates ranging from 9% to 54% (Nansel, Craig, Overpeck, Saluja, & Ruan, 2004). Being a victim or perpetrator of bullying has adverse psychological correlates. Victims and perpetrators of bullying report higher levels of psychiatric and physical symptoms (Kumpulainen et al., 1998, Nansel et al., 2004 and Salmon et al., 1998). Perpetrators have a propensity towards increased aggressive behavior and domestic violence in adulthood (Farrington, 1995). There is evidence of intergenerational continuity of both perpetration (Farrington, 1995) and victimization (Bernstein & Watson, 1997), such that the consequences of bullying are far reaching. As there are little data available from developing countries on this issue, we sought to determine whether these findings hold within a South African population and whether bullying behavior may also act as indicators of other risk-taking behaviors, such as walking home alone at night and traveling in an unsafe vehicle. These behaviors pose a substantial risk to adolescents in South Africa where street crime is common and driving under the influence of alcohol or substances is not stringently policed. Anti-social behavior such as theft and vandalism will also be explored in the current study.

Statement of Problem

Bullying also has links with delinquency and substance use. Bully-victims and bullies have been found to be more likely to smoke (Forero et al., 1999) and use alcohol and other substances excessively (Kaltiala-Heino et al., 2000). This is not surprising, as bullying forms part of a spectrum of externalizing behaviors (Wolke et al., 2000), and it has been suggested that bullying may be a consequence of underlying behavior problems such as hyperactivity and conduct disorder (Farrington, 1993), both of which predispose to delinquency. In contrast, victims of bullying were found to have lower levels of smoking compared to controls not involved in bullying behavior (Forero et al., 1999).

Purpose of the study

Therefore, the aims of this study are: (a) to report the South African prevalence rates of adolescent involvement in bullying, either as victims, bullies or bully-victims, and (b) to investigate whether these bullying behavior categories differentiate levels of violent, anti-social or risk taking behaviors.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Defining Female Aggression

The complex nature of teenage girls' friendships and aggressive conflicts has received relatively little attention from social and educational researchers, as compared with bullying and other forms of violence among males. Most research on aggression has focused on overt, physical ...