Bullying is a social phenomenon that impacts girls and boys inside and outside of school at both primary and secondary school age and is recognised as a social problem both by academic researchers and in the ‘real world’ by the media and by anti-bullying charities. Although bullying is a widely used concept there is no universal definition. Research on bullying has been conducted over the past four decades looking at various aspects from prevalence and severity to coping strategies and effectiveness of interventions. Studies have also considered specific types of bullying and sex differences but these studies do not consider the full variety of types of bullying boys and girls use or which ones are the most upsetting to experience. Most of the studies on girls’ bullying have been conducted in secondary schools; less attention has been given to tweenage girls. This research redressed this imbalance. It began from the position that it is important for adults to listen to tweenage girls’ views as they may have different understandings of bullying compared to adults and this may have policy implications. It assumed that girls were experts on bullying that happened to girls their age in their school. Weekly research lunch club sessions were used with 32 tweenage girl research advisers/assistants from three primary schools. Together we listened to tweenage girls’ views of bullying broadly through developing and administering questionnaires, conducting group interviews and designing anti-bullying resources to be used in their schools. In addition, I conducted one-off focus groups with 11 teenage girls as a comparison to consider age differences in girls’ views. I argue that this research revealed that both girls’ bullying and using pupil research to engage with tweenage girls’ views on this topic was messy and complex. While relational aggression between girls was reported to be most prevalent and severe, focusing on this alone does not reflect the full extent of the behaviours used in girls’ bullying. Both the tweenage and teenage girls’ views on bullying, coping strategies and anti-bullying interventions were similar and were only subtly different in the detail. The research decisions were influenced in an ongoing process by the wants and expectations of the girls, the schools and the researcher and changed through the prolonged interactions during the research. I also argue that ethical practice was an ongoing process and using pupil research created further ethical dilemmas. Although pupil research with tweenage girls on girls’ bullying was challenging and messy, this research gives an example of how it is a viable, successful way to engage with pupils on this sensitive topic. The use of girls’ free time at lunchtimes showed how pupil research positioned as an extra-curricular activity enabled marginalised voices to be heard and was beneficial for the girls, the schools and the researcher involved. This research suggests ways in which school based anti-bullying policies and practices might be more nuanced to take account of the variety of experiences, understandings and preferences for intervention that exist if they engaged in pupil research. There has been little discussion of the issues of the messiness of research and the ongoing nature of ethical practice in either the pupil research literature or methods texts generally for researchers to refer to. I suggest that it would be useful for others to share their messy experiences of pupil research and the ongoing ethical issues they encounter to enable future researchers to be somewhat prepared and confident in responding to the challenges they may face in their own research.

Aim The aim of this study was to analyse the impact of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) on the lives of young people and identify factors that promote resilience to mental health difficulties within this population. Methods The study used a mixed methods approach. Results from the analysis of data from a longitudinal population-based birth cohort, the Avon longitudinal Study of Parents and Children {n=6,902) were synthesised with qualitative data from a purposive sample of 11 young people with clinically diagnosed DCD aged 11 to 16 years. Findings from the qualitative study highlighted areas that were important in the lives of the young people interviewed. These areas, such as the importance of friendship groups, bullying and a positive sense of self, were added to the final analytical model as explanatory mediators in the relationship between DCD and mental health difficulties. Findings In total, 123 young people (1.8% of the eligible cohort aged seven years), met all four diagnostic aThis thesis presents research that explored the nature of bullying amongst girls aged 12 to 15 years old in Northern Ireland. The aim of the research was to provide insight into bullying amongst girls of this age through investigating types of female friendships and the impact they may have on the ways in which girls can experience bullying. The roles adopted by girls in relation to bullying are seen from multiple viewpoints of bully, target and bystander. Furthermore, the thesis considers the relatively new phenomenon of ‘cyberbullying’ by exploring how girls use technology such as mobile phones and the Internet in their everyday lives and how this technology offers new and alternative ways to participate in and experience bullying. In order to investigate the participants’ different perceptions and experiences of bullying. Goffman’s theory of social interactions as a performance has been used as an analytical framework. The study sample consisted of 494 questionnaire responses from girls aged 12 to 15 years old across eight schools in Northern Ireland, and eight semi-structured interviews conducted online using instant messenger. A social networking site, Bebo, was used to communicate more widely with possible participants. The study found that the majority of girls have been a target of bullying at some stage with participants reporting experiences involving a diverse range of methods. The findings provide insight regarding the methods girls use to bully and how age is a significant factor regarding the ways in which girls tend to participate in bullying. The study found that over ninety five percent of participants owned a mobile phone and had internet access at home. As these technologies may be used as alternative ways to bully, it is important that adults understand this new area in order to assist girls in their experiences of bullying.
criteria for DCD using strict (5th centile) cut-offs (severe DCD). In addition, 346 young people met wider inclusion criteria (15th centile of a motor test and activity of daily living scales) and were defined as having moderate or severe DCD. These young people with moderate or severe DCD had increased odds of difficulties in attention, short-term memory, social communication, non-verbal skills, reading and spelling. They also had increased odds of self-reported depression, odds ratio: 2.08 (95% confidence interval (Cl) 1.36 to 3.19) and parent reported mental health difficulties, odds ratio: 4.23 (95% Cl 3.10 to 5.77) at age nine to ten years. The young people interviewed did not see themselves as disabled. Factors that increased a positive sense of self were inclusion in friendship groups, information that helped them understand their difficulties and being understood by parents and teachers. These findings were mirrored in the quantitative analysis which showed that the odds of mental health difficulties reduced after accounting for social communication difficulties, bullying, lower verbal intelligence and self-esteem. Conclusions Developmental Coordination Disorder is a common developmental disorder in childhood. The difficulties seen in these young people are complex and assessment needs to be multidisciplinary and consider neurological causes of poor motor coordination, the presence of coexisting developmental difficulties and associated mental health difficulties. Due to the high prevalence of the condition, ongoing one-to-one therapeutic interventions are not feasible. School based interventions, using therapists as trainers, working within a socio-medical model of disability, could work to promote resilience within the individual and improve the acceptance of differences in abilities within the school.

Throughout the last twenty years, following accession to the European Union (EU), legal economic migrants (and their families) have the right to live and work in European member states. Economic migrants who are European citizens of member states now assume immigrant status and co-exist in countries with pre-existing immigrant communities that have affiliations to the former British Empire. With demographic composition changes of immigrant communities in Europe, difference and discrimination of populations from diverse cultural backgrounds has become a focal issue for European societies. A new, multi-ethnic Europe has thus emerged as one context for understanding cultural uncertainties associated with youth and migration at the end of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty first century. These uncertainties are often associated with the impact of new nationalisms and xenophobic anxieties which impact mobility, young people, and their families (Ahmed, 2008; Blunt, 2005). In this dissertation I seek to examine young peoples’ experiences of migration and school exclusion as they pertain to particular groups of immigrant and minority ethnic groups in England. In particular, the study explores the perceptions and experiences of two groups of diverse young people: British ‘minority ethnic’ and more recently migrated Eastern European ‘immigrant’ youth between the ages of 12-16. It provides some account of the ways in which migrant youth’s experiences with both potential inclusion and exclusion within the English educational system, particularly in relation to the comparative and temporal dimensions of migration. Young people’s opinions of inclusion and exclusion within the English educational system are explored in particular, drawing, in part, upon the framework of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and other theoretical positions on ethnicity and migration in order to paint a picture of contemporary race relations and migration in Buckinghamshire county schools. The methodological approach is ethnographic and was carried out using qualitative ethnographic methods in two case secondary schools. The experiences and perceptions of 30 young people were examined for this research. Altogether, 11 student participants had Eastern European immigrant backgrounds and 19 had British minority ethnic backgrounds (e.g. Afro Caribbean heritage, Pakistani/South Asia heritage, and African heritage). The methods used to elicit data included focus groups, field observations, diaries, photo elicitation, and semi-structured interviews. Pseudonyms are used throughout to ensure the anonymity of participants and to consider the sensitivity of the socio-cultural context showcased in this dissertation. Findings of the study revealed that Eastern European immigrants and British minority ethnic young people express diverse experiences of inclusion and exclusion in their schooling and local communities, as well as different patterns of racism and desires to be connected to the nation. The denial of racism and the acceptance of British norms were dominant strategies for seeking approval amongst peers in the Eastern European context. Many of the Eastern European immigrant young people offered stories of hardship, boredom and insecurity when reflecting on their memories of post-communist migration. In contrast, British minority ethnic young people identified culture shock and idealised diasporic family tales when reflecting on their memories of their families’ experiences of post-colonial migration. In the schooling environment both Eastern European immigrants and British minority ethnic young people experienced exclusion through the use of racist humour. Moreover, language and accents formed the basis for racial bullying towards Eastern European immigrant young people. While Eastern European immigrant youths wanted to forget their EU past, British minority ethnic young people experienced racial bullying with respect to being a visible minority, as well as in relation to the cultural inheritance of language and accents. The main findings of the research are that British minority ethnic young people and Eastern European immigrant young people conceptualise race and race relations in English schools in terms of their historical experiences of migration and in relation to their need to belong and to be recognised, primarily as English, which is arguably something that seems to reflect a stronghold of nationalist ideals in many EU countries as well as the United Kingdom (UK). Both of these contemporary groups of young people attempted both, paradoxically, to deny and accept what seems to them as the natural consequences of racism: that is racism as a national norm. The findings of this study ultimately point towards the conflicts between the politics of borderland mentalities emerging in the EU and the ways in which any given country addresses the idea of the legitimate citizen and the ‘immigrant’ as deeply inherited and often sedimented nationalist norms which remain, in many cases, as traces of earlier notions of empire (W. Brown, 2010; Maylor, 2010; A. Pilkington, 2003; H. Pilkington, Omel’chenko, & Garifzianova, 2010).