Throughout fieldwork conducted in a primary school of southwest Greece, thirty one 11-12 year old pupils offered their perspectives of school bullying. Moreover, they wrote and talked about their related experiences. The children’s reports indicate that reaching a consensus of what constitutes a bullying act, when real life incidents are concerned, is unrealistic. The explanations that the children offered, linking bullying to a network of personal, socio-cultural and organisational factors, confirm the multi-causal nature of the phenomenon.  However, a dominant perspective taken, explains bullying as being provoked by a “deserving” victim, who is deemed as transgressing the existing socio-cultural norms.  Regarding the “bullies”’ motives, their behaviour is understood as conformity to the existing socio-cultural requests rather than representing feelings of malice or hostility.  The pupils’ responses to bullying seem to constitute a struggle to safeguard desirable social identities, these being dictated by the existing socio-cultural norms, rather than tackle the phenomenon itself. The study additionally highlights the power of the Greek terminology to either mask, or connote and reproduce exclusive socio-cultural meanings and practices and discusses the related implications. The importance of language as a social means used for achieving personal goals is emphasised.  This is because through the rationales, excuses and justifications which the pupils offer, meanings of bullying are constructed so that to fit the Greek socio-cultural reality, thus the phenomenon being normalised.  It is suggested that culture and context should not be overlooked when anti-bullying school programs are being designed.

This research investigates cultural differences and similarities in the perceptions of four British Pakistani and four British white children aged eleven with learning difficulties. This is pursued through four main aims that examine how aware pupils are of their learning difficulties; how they and their significant others perceive their learning difficulties; how they respond to key labels used to refer to them; and to what extent there are cultural differences and similarities between the two groups of pupils. This work has been carried out because there is currently limited research in this area. The pupils’ views are explored in two contrasting Bradford (West Yorkshire) primary schools where the cultural population is either predominantly Pakistani or white. A variety of data collection methods, including semi-structured interviews, a self-image profile, focus group interviews and observations have been used to collect data. The findings indicate that there are more commonalities between the Pakistani and white cultures than there are differences, for example although Pakistani and white children enjoy coming to school and want to do well, they are unhappy, embarrassed, and humiliated about having a learning difficulty and hence face these additional pressures in school. Pakistani children expressed more of an interest in attending university and then embarking on professional careers compared to white children. Peers of average/higher ability perceive children with learning difficulties to be more prone to bullying, slow learners, unpopular and these peers have low expectations of what the children with learning difficulties are able to do. Staff view children with learning difficulties as lacking in confidence and selfesteem, experiencing unhappiness, having a low self-image, working at a slower pace and often lacking motivation. The implications of this research indicate that schools needs to raise the selfesteem and confidence of children with learning difficulties, so that these children are able to view their learning difficulty in a positive way. Schools need to be aware of the pressures that children in the low ability groups face, and schools therefore need to maintain a balance in providing children with a basic skills curriculum matched to the individual needs of children and yet continue to promote their personal development and well-being.

This study examined qualitatively how children conceptualise bullying and investigated quantitatively the relationship with gender, ethnic group, attributions of self-blame and the perceived tendency to be bullied.  Seventy children from a school in Nottingham (years 7 & 8) participated.  Responses to the question, In your own words please say what you think bullying is, were analysed using Thematic Analysis.  Five main themes were coded.  Conceptualisations of bullying as an action that had an immediate impact were significantly related to a perceived tendency to be bullied.  Gender, ethnic group and attributional style were not related to conceptualisations of bullying.  Clinical implications of this study in relation to the value of individual therapeutic approaches and group interventions are discussed.

This research makes us of recent analytical advances to further our understanding of school bullying experiences (bullying/victimisation/observing) and their adverse health consequences by firstly, testing the ability of two measurement models of bullying and victimisation (derived from the TRM), to measure four types of bullying behaviour.  Consequently, the rate of bullying experiences, gender and age group were investigated.  Moreover, since evidence exists that children and adolescents are using their own definitions this research examined whether these perceptions vary depending on how the definition is presented.  Different levels in reporting of bullying experiences were examined.  The effects of bullying experiences on children’s health were explored using the CHQ CF-87, a new generic measure of child and adolescent health status.  This was firstly evaluated employing a confirmatory factor analytic approach to test the implied factor structure and subsequently measurement invariance across gender was tested.  Increasing recognition of cultural, developmental, and contextual influences on psychological constructs has increased the need to demonstrate measurement invariance rather than merely assuming that measures are equivalent across groups.  Consequently, the seven invariant subscales were employed to examine the health of bullies, victims, bully-victims, and non-involved children. A sample of children and adolescents (N=2318) in nine post-primary schools in Northern Ireland was recruited. It is evident that not only is the rate of bullying experiences distressingly high in schools worldwide, including Ireland but also that it can and does have serious negative effects on the health and well-being of school-children. More research is needed to disentangle biological factors, stress from demanding schoolwork, under-reporting of relational bullying, avoidant and ambivalent dispositions in the non-involved subgroup and the under-reporting of victimisation and health issues by boys.

This study has involved the preliminary development and evaluation of a questionnaire designed to explore the beliefs and experiences of children with ADHD.  Following small-scale piloting of the questionnaire, it was administered to a sample of 30 children with ADHD, aged 8-13, along with a measure of self-esteem and coping strategies.  The findings highlight the complex and heterogeneous nature of these children’s experiences, beliefs, self-perceptions and coping styles. Although most participants saw themselves as having ADHD diagnosis and reported some difficulties consistent with this diagnosis, they did not identify strongly with their own concept of what ADHD was. As a group, participants reported a lower than average self-esteem, but there was a large range within the sample. Participants gave a mixture of both internal and external attributions for their successes and failures, and some reported using ‘non-compliant’ behaviour to cope with threatening situations (e.g. bullying, struggles with work). A cognitive style involving perceived control over behaviour appeared to be most adaptive, in that it was associated with higher self-esteem and more positive coping. Participants reported a complex pattern of attitudes towards medication, perceiving both positive and negative effects of medication. Greater perceived effects of medication on attention and lesser perceived side-effects were predictive of a more positive attitude to medication. It is hoped that these findings will be used by parents and professionals to enable a better and more rounded understanding of these children’s experiences, and help inform both medical and psychological interventions. These findings also have implications for attribution theories and state regulation models of ADHD.

This qualitative research explores upwards harassment in the workplace and is located in the social psychological paradigm.  In this study the targets for harassment are academics working in Post-1992 English Universities and the perpetrators of the harassment, undergraduate students. The study uses attribution theory to explore the academics’ experiences of the harassment.  These accounts clearly show that students are not only verbally harassing academics and making unachievable task demands using electronic communication devices, but that they are isolating, and personally and sexually harassing academics. Academic attributions demonstrated that they perceived that harassment occurs when students themselves are feeling stressed. They felt that these stresses are not only related with course demands and social requirements, but that they are associated with the changing nature of society, the change in the profile of the university student, widening participation and the social political agenda of education. This research highlighted that, as a result of the harassment, academics are feeling heightened levels of anger, fear and guilt, and to deal with these potentially damaging emotions they proactively employ a variety of coping strategies.  This research demonstrated that the most predominant coping choice is informal social support.   However, it is also suggested that academics are themselves inadvertently putting undue stress upon each other. To minimise upward harassment, limit the negative effects of stress and the associated detriment to the health of academics, it is suggested that universities be proactive in working collaboratively with students, Student Unions, Human Resources, Information Technologists, academics and managers, to explore Anti-Harassment policies, and embed the message that harassment of any form, by anyone in the organisation, is unacceptable.

This study identifies the negative effects resulting from being accused of bullying behaviour on thirty four people in their place of work. Those accused of bullying were asked to rate their accuser as a person in their own right as well as compare themselves with their accuser on a variety of aspects. Personality differences between participants in the study who were accused of bullying and a matched control group, and the coping strategies employed were sought. Possible individual and organisational antecedents to bullying were identified. In addition, to using psychometric measures to obtain quantitative data the findings were enriched by including qualitative research methods.

The main aims of this thesis were to investigate combined and selective associations between varied sources of occupational stressors (environmental and psychosocial) and a range of health outcomes in public sector employees. Data were obtained from two cross-sectional surveys of public sector employees (n-1090 and 870).  Key sources of potential stress examined were: demands, control, support, efforts, rewards, unfavourable working patterns (long hours, shift work), physical hazards (noise, harmful substances), organisational culture, role stressors (conflict, ambiguity), interpersonal relationships (Leader-Member and Team-Member Exchange) and workplace bullying.  Key health outcomes comprised work-related stress, clinical anxiety and depression, lifetime, 12-month and acute symptom prevalence and use of prescribed medication within the last 12 months and 14 days.  Analyses were carried out using logistic regression. Results indicate that stressors explain more variance in health outcomes when studied in combination.  Cumulative exposure to stressors was measured by a composite additive score derived from traditional job stress models (Demand-Control-Support, Effort-Reward Imbalance) and items assessing working hours/physical hazards, and was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting the majority of key health outcomes.  The addition of novel stressors to the composite score (e.g. role, interpersonal relationships, culture) did not explain additional variance with the exception of workplace bullying.  For some outcomes (work-related stress) associations with stressors were linear; for others (clinical depression), only very high levels of exposure were associated with a negative outcome (i.e. a ‘threshold’ effect).  These different patterns of effect are suggestive of selective, as well as cumulative relationships: certain health outcomes are associated with particular risk factors.

This study explored the experiences of physical activity of Bangladeshi adolescents diagnosed with obesity. It adopted a qualitative methodology using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and semi-structured interviews to explore this un-researched area. Physical activity generally declines In adolescence, and is especially low in Bangladeshi young people. It is an integral part of treatments for childhood obesity and therefore, it is important to maximise uptake and engagement. The study findings are reported as four main themes. Physical activity was understood to offer protection from health problems and facilitate weight loss. However, young people did physical activity for fun, weight loss and because it was a social experience, rather than for health reasons. The motivation of being with others, inclusion and friendships were high in the face of associated costs. Young people had to negotiate their dependency on adults for information about their health and for opportunities to do physical activity. Uptake of physical activity was limited by competing demands on time, proximity to home, ability to travel safely, and for females, by the presence of men and concerns over ‘mixing’. However, when young people did access physical activity they enjoyed feeling energised, improved thinking, feeling lighter and the social approval physical changes offered. They disliked the physiological experiences associated with exertion and some young people were anxious about experiencing these. These findings are sample-specific; they cannot be extrapolated onto other groups in other areas. However, they highlight that many experiences were similar to the general population whilst some were culturally mediated. Young people accepted some personal responsibility for physical activity, which was problematic given the external barriers faced. Family norms, cultural norms, bullying and poverty are factors requiring attention in interventions. The findings are discussed in terms of the existing research base. Clinical and research implications are highlighted.

The literature review explored research on school children’s coping styles to bullying, and also the demographic, psychological or bullying-related factors that could impact on coping styles. The literature suggests that there are many different possible coping responses to bullying, but gender and age related trends do seem to exist, and psychological and bullying factors appear to be related to coping response. The research report aims to look at 14-15 year olds’ self-reports of bullying and how this relates to factors of schizotypy, as a predictor of psychosis. Coping styles and socio-emotional difficulties were also measured to see if these had a moderating effect on the relationship between bullying and schizotypy. Results show that bully and target experience significantly predicted three of the four schizotypy subscales, but that coping style and socio-emotional difficulties did not appear to moderate this relationship. Target scores and bully scores significantly predicted avoidant coping styles, and socio-emotional difficulties. The relationship between schizotypy scores and coping styles was also analysed. The relationship between schizotypy and bullying may suggest that bullying is an early trauma that can increase vulnerability to develop psychosis, but it could also be that the experience of schizotypal traits in adolescence increases the likelihood of being involved in bullying.

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.

One of the main aims of this research was to determine the perceived long-term consequences of bullying behaviour in schools. Furthermore, this study examined individual’s recollections of the nature and prevalence of bullying and experiences of other forms of violence throughout their life-course; in doing so the reliability of individual’s retrospective accounts were also assessed. Further still, school pupil’s experiences of bullying and exposure to violence and trauma was also examined, as were their typical behavioural responses to scenes of school bullying. This thesis presents the findings of three studies, focusing on individuals experiences of bullying in school, in a sample of undergraduate university students and post- primary school pupils. In Chapter One, a review of the literature surrounding bullying behaviour research is presented, in addition to an overview of the ‘cycle of violence’ hypothesis, which permeates all aspects of this research. Chapter Two provides an outline of the continuing debate concerning the use of retrospective in bullying behaviour research and a detailed review of all the scales utilised in the first study. The results of Study One are presented in Chapter Three, in which a short-term longitudinal study assessed the reliability and stability of participants (N = 824) memories, the nature of their life-course victimisation experiences and perceived negative consequences of such experiences. A qualitative approach was adopted in Study Two, involving a series of in-depth interviews with self-reported victims (N = 13) of child abuse, bullying in school and domestic violence, all of whom had previously taken part in the first quantitative study; the results of which are presented in Chapter Four. In Chapter Five, the questionnaire booklet was administered to a sample of post-primary pupils (N = 213), within the local area, to assess their experiences of bullying in school and evaluate their perceived ‘rules’ for behaviour according to their status group. Finally, a summary and discussion of the results are presented in Chapter Six. Results suggest that 31.1 % (N = 256) of university participants recalled having been bullied in school at some point, and a further 11.9% (N = 98) acknowledged having actively taken part in victimising other pupils at school, with individuals most commonly citing verbal bullying (i.e. name calling). Just over two in five victims (44%) stated that they attempted suicide, with the majority reporting more than one attempt. It was determined that 43.0% of victims reported having experienced abuse during childhood (i.e. physical abuse/neglect, sexual abuse, etc), 35.9% indicated that they had experienced bullying in later-life (i.e. workplace harassment); resulting in one in five participants (N = 53; 20.7%) revealing that they had experienced both abuse and further victimisation. Measures in the questionnaire booklet revealed that participants were more likely to experience depression, anger and hostility, compared to those with no experience of bullying in school. Over one in three ‘victim only’ participants reported a ‘fearful’ relationship style, and moreover reported the lowest mean scores relating to same and opposite sex self-esteem, but the highest levels regarding emotional loneliness and social isolation. Further still, symptornology analogues with PTSD were found in 11 % of victims. Finally, reliability analysis revealed that individual’s recollections were both accurate and stable across the three data collection point (initial, 6 months post, and 12-14 months post). Reponses from the face-to-face interviews supported these findings with participants expressing how their experiences of bullying in school have affected many aspects of the adult life. Results from the schools based research revealed that 18.8% of pupils reported to be ‘victim only’ and a further 6.6% stated that they were both the victim and a perpetrator of bullying in school, with name calling and exclusion the most commonly cited forms of behaviours reported. With regards to pupil’s experiences of violence, individuals reported experiencing ‘vivid memories’ recollections and feelings of distress in situations which remind victims of their experiences, leading to outbursts of anger and a general sense of wariness. Furthermore, ‘bully only’ pupils reported the highest overall mean on a measure of aggression, and on a measure of parenting style reported the highest means relating to ‘indifference’, ‘over-control’ and ‘abuse’. Self- identified victims reported lowest levels of both same and opposite-sex self-esteem and general self-esteem; and highest levels of both emotional loneliness and social isolation.

Schools have a responsibility to prevent all forms of bullying, including that related to sexual orientation. However, to date relatively little is known about how schools are successfully tackling homophobia and homophobic bullying. The aim of this study therefore was to generate new knowledge about how three secondary schools in South London, England, were engaging with and addressing homophobia. A coeducational, a boys’ and a girls’ school were selected — each having conducted work to counter homophobic bullying. In each school, individual interviews were conducted with three members of staff and group interviews were conducted with pupils drawn from two Year groups (from Year 9, 10 or 11). Information was also drawn from the schools’ latest Ofsted report. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and data analysed thematically by way of successive approximation. Work on homophobia and homophobic bullying was said by staff to be part of the commitment by schools to counter bullying in all its forms, to extend equal opportunities and to promote an inclusive whole school ethos. This they did through policy development, continuing professional development and, in particular, through Personal Social and Health Education and Citizenship. However, more needed to be done in each school to ensure that all staff were competent to address homophobia. Pupils stated that they were keen that homophobic bullying should be tackled in their school — although some noted that they would find it difficult, themselves, to take an anti-homophobic stance. Pupils stated that work carried out in schools had some influence on them — although as important was personal contact with lesbians and gay men and the media. Findings are discussed in relation to the utilisation of national policies and programmes, school improvement through preventing homophobia, extending Sex and Relationship Education, and teaching about same-sex sexuality as a noncontroversial issue. Implications for my own professional practice are outlined.

Research into interventions in workplace bullying appears to be largely under researched despite widespread acceptance that action is required.  Many studies exist that have explored what needs to occur to deal with workplace bullying.  It is apparent however that there is a general struggle over what people should actually do, making the absence of intervention studies somewhat puzzling.  This thesis studies a microcosm of what interventions may take place through a national helpline run by Acas, a UK based Government funded organisation with a remit to help resolve workplace relations conflicts. Adopting a framework of social construction, this thesis, using interviews and focus groups, has sought to answer the question, What role does the Acas helpline fulfil when intervening in cases of alleged workplace bullying? This thesis finds a relatively uniform response from participants which shows a lack of clarity of understanding as to what bullying at work means.  Participants also demonstrate the impossible task of providing a singular route to intervention because of the multifaceted nature of the phenomenon.  Similarly, the capacity for interventions to provide solutions that satisfy the callers’ expectations falls someway short of what was hoped for.  This is not a failing of Acas as an organisation.  Rather, it illustrates the complexity of providing interventions for complex subjective situations, such as workplace bullying, using a telephone helpline.

This study evaluated the factors assessed from pregnancy until 8.5 years of age which predict bullies, victims and bully/victims versus neutral for both direct and relational bullying.  The inclusion of these variables depended on previous research.  The model which was used to build up the precursors set and analysis was the ecological model with modifications to suit the nature of the data set and measures. The data set was obtained from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents And Children (ALSPAC) study. ALSPAC investigates the development of more than 10,000 children and their families from pregnancy in the UK. All families have been contacted several times per year via questionnaires since pregnancy and the children had individual standard interviews of their bullying involvement at 8.5 years of age. In total, data for 6781 children (3561; 50.3% girls) had complete data for direct bullying and 6637 children (3495: 50.4% girls) for relational bullying. Findings are presented regarding the relative influence of child characteristics, family (proximal), and environmental (distal) factors related to bullying involvement in primary school. The results indicate that bullying status group membership was most strongly predicted and related to child characteristics before school entry with few proximal and distal factors adding to the prediction model. This was especially obvious with relational bullying status groups with only relational bullies being predicted mainly by proximal factors. In addition, relational bullying status groups, except relational victims, were not predicted or related to cognitive deficit or negative verbal abilities compared to direct bullying status groups. A particularly high-risk group are those pupils who are bully/victims that shared the characteristics of bullies and victims, distinguished by more behavioural, cognitive preschool problems and adverse family background. Implications for developmental models of bullying and for intervention strategies are discussed.