This study examined the enemy images as perceived by young children in two countries. The children’s sources of information as well as whom or what they conceived as a protector from the enemies were also inquired. The field of enemy images among young children is hitherto a relatively unexplored one. However, the study was influenced by more general literature on how children perceive their social environment, and in particular by the writings of Lambert and Kilneberg, Vygotsky, Cullingford, Dragonas and Frangoudaki. The empirical part of the study took place from January 1966 to February 1997 with 171 school children aged five to nine. It was conducted in Greece (in a big city and an island) and in Britain (in a small English city). Due to problems of access the number of British children involved in the research was much smaller than the Greek one. The data collection methods included semi-structured group interviews and a projective exercise, where children were asked to produce a drawing of an enemy. The children conceived specific groups or individuals as enemies. The following main enemy images could be distinguished: a. enemy-warriors (often countries that had been in a war conflict with their country in the past); b. enemy-criminals (people doing evil things, threatening the society; sometimes crime was associated with specific social groups, such as “the immigrants”); and c. enemy-acquaintances (other children at school or from the peergroup. Some cases of bullying were also reported). A number of sub-categories of enemy images were also identified. Almost all the interviewees described the same enemy images. They did, however, give different emphasis and meaning on what it is to have enemies, depending on their age, gender and place where they were from. The research suggested that the social context in which children live and grow up has the major role in the formation of enemy images; children’s age and gender also appeared to influence the images children held.
The Centre hosts the International Journal of Bullying Prevention (Springer) which is a peer reviewed scholarly publication issued four times per year. This peer reviewed journal provides an interdisciplinary scientific forum in which to publish current research on the causes, forms, and multiple contexts of bullying and cyberbullying…