An Exploratory Study to Understand School Bullying Experiences of Middle School Adolescents

Abstract

Adolescence is a critical phase of an individual’s life where a person goes through changes at both physical and emotional level. Each experience during this phase has an important role in shaping the personality of an adult. Researches have shown that experience of violence at this stage leave huge impact on wellbeing of an individual. Bullying in school is a global issue and has been a focus of research from last 4 decades due to its high prevalence and negative effect on person’s wellbeing. In Pakistan, small scale studies have shown prevalence of bullying in Pakistani school and its negative relationship with students mental wellbeing. This study aimed at exploring the bullying experience of adolescents studying in government secondary schools. To understand how students are coping with these experiences and how these experiences affect adolescents, semi structured interview was conducted with 10 adolescents (5 boys and 5 girls). Interviews were transcribed in the same language and thematic analysis was used for analyzing the data. Findings have shown that students are experiencing physical, verbal and social bullying in school. Bullies are mostly from higher classes i.e. 9th or 10th and work in groups. Participants have reported symptoms both at behavioral and emotional level. They cope with these experiences by reporting it to authorities but most of the students cope through these experiences through withdrawal by keeping their emotions inside without sharing with anyone. These findings will help in planning any intervention for prevention of bullying and also for counselling victims of bullying.