چه چیزی واقعا باعث توقف زورگویی می شود؟ گزارش از قربانیان سابق

School bullying is a serious, worldwide problem which is not easily counteracted. The present study focuses on the perspective of former victims, asking them what it was that made the bullying stop in their case. Participants were 273 18-year-old former victims in Sweden, a country in which schools are doing extensive work against bullying and the bullying prevalence is relatively low. Results showed that although support from school personnel was the most common reason that the former victims gave to why the bullying had ended, it was only mentioned by a fourth of them. In fact, it was almost equally as common that the bullying had ended in that the victims transitioned to a new school level or changed their way of coping with the bullying. Very few of the adolescents reported that the bullying had stopped due to support from peers.

In total, 225 adolescents (82% of the former victims) answered the open-ended question concerning what they thought it was that made the bullying stop. Twenty of these answers were excluded from the analysis since they could not be considered as answering the question. Thus, overall, we analyzed the answers of 205 adolescents (75% of those who reported having been bullied). Among these, 117 (57%) were girls and 88 (43%) were boys. Table 1 demonstrates the proportions of victims, among those who answered the open-ended question, who reported having been bullied in the different grades at school. Table 1. Percentages of adolescents, among those who answered the open-ended question regarding what they thought made the bullying stop, who reported having been bullied during each of the twelve grades in primary, secondary, and upper secondary school. Grade (age) Proportion of adolescents, among those who answered the question regarding what made the bullying stop, who reported having been bullied at each school year (%) 1 (7 years) 48 2 (8 years) 54 3 (9 years) 53 4 (10 years) 52 5 (11 years) 52 6 (12 years) 53 7 (13 years) 43 8 (14 years) 39 9 (15 years) 29 1st year (16 years) 11 2nd year (17 years) 7 3rd year (18 years) 6 Table options Presenting the themes The answers to the open-ended question “If you have ever been the victim of bullying during school, what was it that made the bullying stop (if it did stop)?” were coded into ten themes, see Table 2. Table 2. The ten themes formed from the adolescents' answers to the question “If you have ever been the victim of bullying during school, what was it that made the bullying stop (if it did stop)?”. Theme Description of theme Illustrative quotation Support from school personnel The involvement of school personnel (e.g. teachers, headmaster, school welfare officer, the school's anti-bullying team, recreation leaders, or more generally, “the school”) made the bullying stop. “He [the headmaster] organized a meeting in which I was asked to point out the bullies in the school yearbook and then the bullies were called to a meeting with the headmaster.” Support from parents The victim told his or her parents about the bullying or the parents intervened on their own initiative. “I stayed home from school a lot and my parents made me tell them about the bullying. They contacted the school who dealt with it.” Support from peers Peers supported the victim emotionally or actively intervened in order to stop the bullying. “A friend of mine noticed how they [the bullies] treated me /… / and then she went and told a teacher.” The victim made new friends The victim made new friends in class. A few of the adolescents pointed out that finding new friends was particularly efficient if these new friends were students that had high social status in class. “… then I found someone to be with when I started third grade.” Transition to new school level The victim or the bullies were placed in a new group of students in association with their advancement to the next school level or, in some cases, general re-organizations at school. Answers in which the cause to the change of class or school was not mentioned, such as “We changed school”, or answers implying that the adolescent changed school because his or her family had moved to a different city, were also included in this category. “The people involved [the bullies] graduated from ninth grade and so it all stopped.” “The class was divided and the popular gang split up. I got the opportunity to meet other nice students and the hierarchy that existed in class was eliminated once the bullies lost control.” Change of school or class as a deliberate attempt to make the bullying stop The victim changed school with the specific intention to make the bullying stop. “…After three and a half years I couldn't take it anymore, so I changed school” The victim changed his or her way of coping when being bullied The victim changed his or her way of coping in bullying situations, by, for instance, telling the bully to stop, fighting back, or ignoring the bullying. “I spoke up for myself, pressed the one who behaved badly against a wall, and told him how I felt.” “The bullying stopped when I simply started to ignore what the bullies were saying.” The victim changed his or her way of being or appearance The victim became more self-confident, extrovert, or more mature. This category also includes descriptions of how the bullying stopped when some aspect of the victim's appearance that had been the subject of harassment, such as acne or chubbiness, disappeared as he or she grew older. “I got more self-confident and then people stopped bullying me.” “I was bullied for being chubby as a child. As I grew older my chubbiness disappeared and the bullying stopped.” The bullies changed their attitude The bullies matured and obtained a greater understanding and empathy for the victim's situation, or they simply got tired of bullying. “I think it stopped when we grew up and people got more mature and started to realise that it's another person's feelings they are playing with.” The bullying stopped without any particular reason The former victim cannot see any particular reason for why the bullying stopped or states that it simply faded out after a while. “I simply had to stand it until it stopped by itself.” Table options Distribution of answers in the categories The distribution of the adolescents' answers in the different categories is presented in Table 3. The categories that most frequently occurred in the adolescents' answers were “support from school personnel”, “transition to new school level”, and “the victim changed his or her way of coping when being bullied”. Very few adolescents considered “support from peers” as a reason to why the bullying ended. Table 3. Percentages of adolescents who included the different themes in their answers to the question “what made the bullying stop?”. Theme In total (n = 205) (%) Boys (n = 89) (%) Girls (n = 116) (%) Support from school personnel 25 24 27 Transition to new school level 23 20 25 Change of coping strategies 20 26 15 Support from parents 12 8 15 Change of appearance or way of being 12 8 14 Change of school or class as a deliberate attempt to make the bullying stop 11 12 10 New friends 11 9 12 The bullies changed their attitude 8 9 8 No particular reason 5 6 5 Support from peers 4 3 4 Other reasons 3 3 3 Note. A participants' answer may have been coded into several different categories. Table options Sex differences Chi-square analyses on each of the categories revealed a significant sex difference on one of them; “the victim changed his or her way of coping when being bullied”. More specifically, it was found that a larger proportion of boys in comparison to girls experienced that the bullying had stopped as a consequence of them having changed their way of coping when being bullied χ2 (1, N = 205) = 4.01, p < .05. As concerns the other ten categories, no sex differences were found. Differences depending on at what age the bullying stopped To explore whether the adolescents' perception of what made the bullying stop differed depending on their age when the bullying had stopped, the respondents were classified according to the latest school year during which they reported having been bullied. The participants were divided into two groups depending on whether their last year of being bullied took place in grade 1–6 (age 7–12, n = 94) or in grade 7–9 and upper secondary school (age 13–18, n = 110). Chi-square analyses showed a significant difference between the groups on one of the categories: “support from parents”. More specifically, a greater proportion of those whose last year of being bullied occurred in grade 1–6 in comparison to those whose last year of being bullied occurred in grade 7–9 and upper secondary school, experienced that the bullying had stopped due to support from their parents χ2 (2, N = 204) = 9.157, p < .05. As concerns the other ten categories, we found no differences in the adolescents' answers depending on at what age the bullying had stopped. Differences depending on the frequency of the bullying In order to examine whether the adolescents' perception of what made the bullying stop differed depending on the frequency with which they had been bullied, we divided the participants into two groups: those who had been bullied less than once a week (less frequently; n = 60) and those who had been bullied once a week or more during at least one school year (frequently, n = 144). Again, the two groups differed significantly on one of the categories: “support from parents”, χ2 (1, N = 204) = 5,82, p < .05. To be more specific, a larger proportion of adolescents having been bullied frequently (15%) in comparison to those having been bullied less frequently (3%), described the support from their parents as a reason to why the bullying stopped. As concerns the other ten categories, we found no differences in the adolescents' answers depending on the frequency with which they had been bullied.