Bullying occurs in most schools to a certain extent. However, this does not mean bully-victim relationships should be considered to be acceptable.  Being the victim of bullying has been associated with a range of maladjustment variables in children, including depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and post-traumatic stress.  Depression is the internalising symptom that has been most strongly associated with victimization (Hawker and Boulton, 2002).  Yet there has been little research into either protective or risk factors for depression in victimized children.  Theories of depression following stressful life events would suggest that social support and cognitive vulnerabilities are two important factors to investigate.  The first paper explores the literature on bullying and theories of depression in children.  The review brings these two areas of research together by examining social support and cognitive vulnerabilities in children. The current study had two aims.  Firstly, to investigate whether social support protected children from depression and secondly, to investigate whether cognitive errors were a risk factor for depression in victimized children.  A cross-sectional design was used to compare victims and non-victims.  Victimization was assessed by peer nomination and depression, cognitive errors and social support were assessed by self-report.  Data were analysed using t-tests, analysis of covariance and correlations.  Results supported the hypothesis that depression is associated with victimization.  When cognitive errors were controlled the difference in depression scores between victims and non-victims was reduced.  Social support had different effects in boys and girls.  Limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.

For some young people, the experience of having a facial disfigurement such as a cleft lip and palate can result in negative social interactions, often originating from the stereotyping reaction of others. Using the social rank theory of shame, the effects of bullying and teasing were investigated in a patient group of 16, 12-18 year olds with cleft lip or cleft lip and palate. The patient group were compared with a group of 16 of their peers with regards to their experiences of bullying and teasing, shame-proneness and the focus of their shame. The interactional effects of shame and bullying were also investigated in order to test a shaming-loop model of negative social interaction. The investigation necessitated two separate studies., The first study involved 215 adolescents from a secondary school and was required for the development of a focus of shame scale and gathering of data for establishing its psychometric properties. It also enabled data to be collected regarding the experiences of shame and bullying in adolescents without cleft lip and palate, in order that a random sample of 16 school adolescents matched with the patient sample on age and gender, may act as a comparison group. Participants completed self-report questionnaires concerning shame-proneness and focus of shame, and a semi-structure interview regarding their experiences of bullying. The second study involved the administration of the same measures to the patient sample. Results showed high levels of bullying for both groups although there was no overall difference between the groups. Differences were seen in focus of shame scores, with the patient group having higher scores on shame related to facial appearance than their comparisons. No overall differences were seen on score of shame-proneness. The implications of the findings are discussed and limitations of the study acknowledged.

The aim of this study is to investigate the nature and prevalence of workplace bullying in the voluntary sector.  Also it attempts to expand the theoretical repertoire by applying routine activity theory (RAT) in examining the situational antecedents of workplace bullying in this sector.  A cross-sectional, in-depth survey using method triangulation was applied.  The findings are based on 178 completed questionnaires (response rate+71%) and 22 interviews, from members of 29 voluntary organisations in Leicestershire.  A total of 15% of the respondents reported being bullied over the last one year and 28% in the last 5 years.  Where comparable, the prevalence of bullying in the voluntary sector was found to be higher than among the NHS trusts, fire service, higher education, manufacturing and civil service sectors, while it is almost parallel to the police service and the post/telecommunications – the sectors which are considered to have high prevalence rates.  The independent sample t-test shows that the victims of workplace bullying in voluntary organisations reported the least experience of overt behaviour and personal harassment, and the most experience of work-related harassment.  The voluntary sector and individual victims suffer from significant detrimental effects in terms of physical/psychological health, work performance, sick leave and personal life.  Results from the logistic regression and interviews provide partial support for a routine activities approach to workplace bullying.  This is observed both for the main effects and interactive effects of the predictor variables.  Of the main effects hypothesised to determine workplace bullying in the voluntary organisations, the organisational measures of guardianship, especially perpetrator status and leadership climate were the strongest predictors of bullying.  Workload, employment status, confrontation and availability of policy were not significantly related in the logistic regression model.  Additionally, only one interaction effect was found to be consistently significant across different specifications, which is the ‘confront by perpetrator status’ interaction.

This thesis is concerned with the presentation of a three year project investigating mainstream teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion in one Local Educational Authority in the Southwest of England. The study used both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The first phase of the project involved a survey which indicated that educating students with significant disabilities in mainstream classrooms results in positive changes in educators’ attitudes. Here, the study confirmed previous research, which reported that teachers show positive commitment after they have gained mastery of the professional expertise needed to implement inclusive programmes. Further, the survey highlighted the importance and effectiveness of substantial self-reflective critical professional development, which results in the acquisition of generic teaching skills necessary for meeting the needs of all children, as opposed to short term technical responses to specific needs. The qualitative phase of the project involved in-depth case studies of two individual schools which considered the whole issue of inclusion from a holistic perspective. The results of the qualitative phase indicated that there are distinctions to be drawn between integration (seen as “participation”) and inclusion (“participation’ and “belonging”) -this was further highlighted by students’ personal accounts of bullying within the secondary school which described itself as “inclusive”. The qualitative aspects of the study highlighted the conclusion that “inclusive practice” is seen more in terms of integration than inclusion – students have their specific learning needs well met within the schools, but their personal needs are not well supported. The results indicate that in order to achieve inclusion, schools must look to restructuring to support personal as well as social needs. Such restructuring is dependent on specific professional development (as indicated in the quantitative study) which supports the needs of learners within “inclusive” (holistic) frameworks.