This thesis explores the related concepts of heteronormativity and homophobia and their connection to homophobic bullying in Irish second-level schools. The research undertaken for this thesis involved one hundred interviews with pupils, parents, teachers and senior management teams in six second-level schools in the Greater Dublin area. The data from these interviews revealed an understanding of sexuality among participants that was binary in nature in that they (particularly pupils) understood there to be two opposing sexualities, heterosexual and homosexual, and they believed that heterosexuality was the only legitimate or normal sexuality. Close contact with members of the same sex or with gay or lesbian was considered dangerous in that one might be contaminated or turned homosexual and consequently it was considered justifiable to isolate and even ridicule those considered to be gay and lesbian in schools. Homophobic name-calling was also used by pupils to deride those who were not necessarily considered to be gay or lesbian. The data also revealed that for the most part teachers accepted homophobic name-calling and other behaviours as a normal part of the school environment. Teachers were unaware of their role in perpetuating the status quo regarding homophobic bullying. However, teachers did report that they had to be seen to uphold the religious ethos of their schools in relation to homosexuality and as such a culture of silence reigns where sexuality and homosexuality are concerned. The role of the Catholic Church as patron of the majority of Irish schools and its teachings against homosexual behaviour is identified in this thesis as a significant mitigating factor against teachers taking action against homophobia and homophobic bullying. For their part, parents admitted that they would be sad if their sons/daughters were gay, mostly because they would be fearful for how they would be received in school and society. Although they did want schools to include some education about sexual orientation in their programmes. This study highlights the need for clearer policies regarding gay and lesbian issues in Irish schools as well as pre-service and in-service training in equality issues for teachers.

This thesis explores how young resisters and desisters in their teenage years maintain their resistance to and desistance from offending and asks to what extent they are agentic in the process. The term ‘resister’ refers to those who, according to a self-report survey, have never offended, and the term ‘desister’ to those who have offended and then ceased for at least twelve months. By situating desisters analytically adjacent to resisters, I have moved towards conceptualising desisters as current non-offenders. Desisters may have shared a past with persisters, as they have both offended. However, desisters share their current experience, that of maintaining non-offending, with resisters. It is this obvious, yet largely ignored, link between young resisters and desisters which underpins the thesis. Two qualitative methods, both of which elicited young people’s own perspectives, were employed between 2003 and 2005. Secondary analysis of 112 qualitative interviews with resisters and desisters in their teenage years was conducted and peer led focus groups (in which a young peer, rather than an adult researcher, acted as the facilitator) were held with 52 teenage resisters. Young people’s resistance to offending does not feature prominently in the literature. When it does, it is often associated with a state of innocence or passivity, while young desisters are said to ‘grow out of’ offending. This emphasis on an absence of offending, rather than on actively attained resistance, reflects an adult oriented view. The thesis challenges this by drawing on the sociology of childhood, a theoretical perspective which has not previously been applied to young people’s resistance to and desistance from offending and which emphasises young people as agentic. Their agency is evidenced by the findings. Chapters Four and Five report how young people employ numerous strategies of resistance and desistance and Chapter Six how that they face trials and tribulations in maintaining their nonoffending, while Chapter Seven focuses on the ‘being’ rather than the ‘doing’ of sustaining non-offending. It is the work of Derrida that enables the argument to be taken a step further. Derrida’s (1981) assertion is that binary oppositions are rarely neutral, but that one is the dominant pole. For example, in Western society the first of the following binary oppositions are usually regarded as the dominant or privileged pole: white/black, masculine/feminine, adult/child. In respect of the binary opposition at the heart of the current thesis, namely offender/non-offender, the non-offender is – from an adult perspective at least – the dominant pole and the non-offender is hailed as the norm. By contrast, several findings in the thesis point to the fact that the dominant pole in the binary opposition for young people is the offender rather than the non-offender. First, the discourse of young resisters and desisters suggests a view of the offender rather than non-offender as the norm. Secondly, many resisters and desisters face trials and tribulations, such as bullying, relating to their nonoffending status. Yet, if it were the case that the non-offender was the dominant pole and was privileged by young people (as it is in the adult population), resisters would not be penalised in such ways for not offending. Thirdly, some of the strategies used by resisters, such as involvement in anti-social behaviour, signify an attempt to compensate for their non-offending status. Again, if the non-offender was the dominant pole in the binary opposition, far from resorting to mechanisms to compensate for their non-offending behaviour, this behaviour would be encouraged, as it is by adults. This inverted world has implications for young resisters and desisters. Their resistance is to be understood in the context of an expectation of offending, rather than non-offending. Contrary to the notion of the pull of normality bringing desisters back to a non-offending state, the pull of normality among young desisters – and many resisters – is better understood as being towards offending. Resistance, evidenced by the strategies and trials and tribulations of resisters and desisters, is against this pull. Moreover, as non-offending is the modus operandi in the adult world, to be an adult non-offender requires less effort. For a young person, being a non-offender is more challenging than it is for adults and maintenance of resistance constitutes a struggle not previously reflected in adult representations. Adults, not having taken account of the different modus operandi of the young person’s world, have not attributed agency to resistance and have underestimated young people’s struggle to maintain resistance. The strategies demanded of resisters and desistcrs to maintain non-offending and the trials and tribulations which they face when they do have heretofore been overlooked.

Bullying research has provided a wealth of information and a depth of understanding that has led to the development of intervention strategies in schools. However, despite this extensive research, bullying continues to be a significant problem. It has been suggested that working with children or with schools may not be enough to solve the problem and that it may be necessary to include parents as part of the solution, especially if the antecedents originate and are consistently reinforced at home. Research that has considered factors relating to family functioning and the relationship between the caregivers and their children provide support for this argument, but research in this area is scarce. The main aim of the present research was to investigate family backgrounds, parenting styles and the personal characteristics of parents and children involved in bullying situations in order to identify effective routes for intervention. More specifically, it focused children’s attachment styles and the roles they adopted in bullying situations at school. A longitudinal design with mixed methods was adopted involving 28 pre-school children and theft caregivers. The children were ‘new starters’ at one of three schools and at the start of the investigation they were aged 4 years – 4 years and 11 months and their primary caregiver’s ages ranged between 29 and 53 years. Primary caregivers participated in interviews and exercises about themselves and theft families and observations of the children occurred in different settings at school during their first year. It was predicted that a link between the childrens’ attachment type and the roles they adopted in bullying situations would be found. However, no evidence was found to suggest a link between childrens’ attachment style and bullying. Despite this, interesting trends were found. These are considered and the difficulties and limitations of the investigation are discussed.

The school chosen for the purposes of the study was an all boys independent school, located in south Dublin. The annual intake of year one students was just under 100 and each year group were looked after by a ‘Year Head’. These year heads provided much of the daily information relating to behaviour, attendance and punctuality and also acted as a reference point for weekly briefings regarding the progress of the group. Class teachers, form teachers and extra-curricular staff also provided information which was added to the continuous stream of formal input and which was valuable in terms of providing a complete account of each student’s experiences. On their entry into year one of secondary school, the study group (91 students aged 12-13) began a series of tests, surveys and assessments that would continue for the three years of their junior cycle experience. Ten variable categories were studied and numerous data collection techniques were employed: –  Ability and intelligence tests were administered to all students; –  Daily reports were compiled in the areas of behaviour, attendance and punctuality; –  Six-weekly continuous assessment reports were presented by individual teachers; –  Twice years surveys on esteem, attribution and socialisation were organised; –  Annual assessments of involvement in extra-curricular activities and involvement in bullying were completed; and –  The normal school records (eg: academic results at Christmas and summer of each year) were also made available for the purposes of the study. Each of these tests, surveys and assessments was administered directly by the researcher, who was working as a teacher in the school for the duration of the project. The information gathered was added to a selection of computerised data files at the end of every day and a summary of the results in each category was produced at the middle and end of each academic year. These results were collated over a three year period and were cross-referenced and correlated in an attempt to identify trends and patterns in the data.

This thesis demonstrates the day-to-day experiences of victimisation and opinions about crime as they were encountered by a group of pupils in a rural school at one particular point in time. A number of key themes are addressed, the first being the notion of the adolescent as a victim of crime. This thesis considers what ‘crime’ means to the pupils at this school and documents their views of crime in the wider community. The next area addressed is the victimisation of adolescents by fellow adolescents; here the focus is on incidents of bullying that occurred on and off the school premises. Third, whilst men as victims is an under-researched area, boys as victims are even less adequately studied, and the question of masculine identities are incorporated. Furthermore, the roles the female students played are investigated as with their involvement in both acts of violence and bullying. The fourth area is the limits of moral conduct and how this particular age group makes decisions about the unwritten moral codes and boundaries affecting the display of violence. This in turn invites the question of how teenagers made sense of larger moral problems and problems of living inside a school interpreted as a form of institution with a distinctive ‘underlife’. These themes are addressed within an analysis of the larger social organisation of childhood and adolescence. Criminologists have long recognised the importance of peer group influence in the development of offending behaviour, but the research took into account the rural context of that setting, the final analytical lens through which it is focussed. This thesis demonstrates that the intricate patterns of violence and bullying are a process whereby status and power reinforce an established hierarchy of pupil’s informal relations. The importance of the peer group emerged as the key to understanding interactions between the pupils at the school researched. The power of the peer group would have to be taken into consideration in any strategies devised to curtail bullying.

The prevalence of obesity is increasing worldwide and is now considered an epidemic.  The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between body composition and health and lifestyle factors in school-age children. The first part of the study consisted on secondary analysis of data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey: young people aged 4 to 18 years to investigate the relationship between overweight, high waist circumference, high mid-upper arm circumference and blood pressure and blood lipids.  The relationship of these anthropometric measures to demographic factors and diet and physical activity was also investigated.  The second part of the study consisted of collection and analysis of data from 129 children aged 8-10 and 75 children aged 14-16 years, from the Aberdeen area to investigate the relationship between BMI, waist circumference and percentage body fat and psychosocial functioning (self-esteem, locus of control, depression and bullying), blood pressure and lung function.  The relationship of these anthropometric measures to diet and physical activity was also investigated. High body fat was associated with increased blood pressure and an unfavourable lipid profile, but was not found to have a detrimental effect on lung function.  High body fat was associated with poorer psychosocial functioning in young girls (8-10 years) but not in boys. Body fat was negatively associated with time spent in exercise and percentage energy from total sugars and non-milk extrinsic sugars and positively associated with time spent in inactive pursuits, average daily total energy intake, dieting to lose weight, percentage energy from total fats and a ‘healthier’ diet.   Demographic factors found to be related to body fat were region, number of parents and siblings in household, whether parents receive income support and social class of parents.   Sex and age variations in these relationships were found.

The existing research literature was reviewed with respect to child refugee and asylum seeker experience and its relationship with emotional and behaviour adjustment.  This was considered in relation to experiences prior to and during migration, whilst claiming refugee status and in the longer-term resettlement and adaptation.  The literature review also examined various individual, familial and extra-familial risk and protective factors involved in the mediation and moderation of children’s stress. Research regarding the psychological status of asylum seeker and refugee children however, provides no consensus on the extent of the emotional and behavioural needs of these children.  Therefore, this study aimed to determine the adjustment profile of asylum seeker and refugee children attending a school in a socially deprived area and to compare this with their British peers and a normative population.  It also sought to identify whether particular factors were associated with adjustment difficulties in the overall sample.  Results showed that the asylum seeker/refugee boys had significantly higher levels of emotional and behavioural difficulty than the girls.  There were comparable rates of difficulty in asylum seeker/refugee boys and British boys and girls and significantly higher rates of difficulty within both of these groups compared with the normal population.  However, asylum seeker/refugee girls had lower rates of emotional and behavioural problems and these were comparable with the normal population. This study found that younger age, involvement in bullying, and lower academic ability were significant predictors of emotional and behavioural difficulties.  The results of this study indicate the high levels of need in both asylum seeker/refugee boys and British children living in a socially and economically deprived area.

The aims of this present research are to expand our general understanding of bullying behaviour and to advance our knowledge about bullying among Korean pupils. With the purpose of exploring the nature and features of Korean bullying several studies were carried out, including one nationwide survey. At the beginning of this research, a sample (N=160) of Korean middle school pupils was selected in order to define the most appropriate term for bullying. The results confirmed that wang-ta is the most appropriate term for Korean bullying which can equivalently be used for bullying in English speaking nations. With the term selected and two pilot studies a large-scale study (N=2,926) was carried out. The results showed that 5.80/0 of Korean pupils suffered by being bullied whereas 10.2%) pupils reported that they bully other peers. Results from the previous two studies indicated that there are different stages of victimisation in Korean schools. To investigate the stages of victimisation, 424 Korean pupils were selected. The results confined that there are different levels of victimisation and each level is named differently according to the level of victimisation. Moreover, in order to explore different stages of wang-ta, and study features of Korean bullying, 10 pupils, who quit school mainly due to being bullied, were interviewed. The participants well described the relationship between those three studies and their victimisation and a pattern of victimisation has been found. Infonnation and knowledge concerning the nature and features of wang-ta can be useful to correctional practitioners and policy makers as well as important to conduct comparative studies. Moreover, features of Korean bullying can help practitioners in order to better help victims in schools.

Bullying is a widespread problem in schools and a vast amount of research has been conducted on the subject. In order to examine how members of the school community perceive bullying, self-report questionnaires were devised for completion by secondary school pupils from two year groups, teachers and support staff. The scenario-based questionnaires compared their views on defining bullying, the perceived seriousness of different behaviours and the bullying perceived to occur in the school. The questionnaires indicated that perceptions of bullying were mediated by the age, gender and group (pupil, teacher and support staff) of participants. Indirect behaviours (such as social exclusion) were less likely to be defined as bullying and were perceived as less serious than direct behaviours. Where the victim portrayed in the questionnaire was female, perceptions of seriousness for the incidents described were higher than for male victims. Staff rated direct and indirect behaviours more seriously than did pupils. Differences between schools indicated that perceptions were not fixed and there was potential for change. Open-ended comments made on the questionnaires revealed further complexity in perceptions of bullying and illustrated the benefits of utilising qualitative techniques to study bullying. Therefore, an additional study was conducted whereby a sample of teachers and support staff from participating schools were interviewed, using a semistructured approach, about their experiences of bullying. Results were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 2003) and findings suggested the need to consider bullying in a wider context, focusing on schools as organisations with external and internal influences affecting their functioning. The research highlighted the importance of schools working together to focus on what is understood by the term bullying. Interventions need to recognise the complexity of bullying and not treat it in isolation. Practical issues for studying bullying in schools and the potential benefits of combining quantitative and qualitative research are discussed.

Recent historical developments in policy and practice have seen a gradual but significant shift towards less segregated provision for people with intellectual disabilities and the concepts of inclusion and citizenship now dominate current policy rhetoric. The recent UK government paper ‘Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People’ (Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit 2005), ambitiously proposes that ‘By 2025, disabled people in Britain should have full opportunities and choices to improve their quality of life and will be respected and included as equal members of society’ (pp.7). However, the conceptualisation and measurement of ‘inclusion’ in the intellectual disability literature has been rather narrow to date; focusing primarily on levels and determinants of participants in community-based activities and social networks. In order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the inclusion/exclusion of people with intellectual disabilities, it may be useful to draw on models, theories and practices from the wider literature. This research sought to explore the experiences and perceptions of citizenship for a group of young men attending a College of Further Education. Eight young men with mild/moderate intellectual disabilities were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the data. Research findings indicated that inhibitors of community and civic participation included: neighbourhood deprivation, crime and antisocial behaviour; bullying and victimisation; and distrust of neighbours and public/political institutions. Facilitators of participation comprised: family modelling; social networks: financial and personal incentives; and political efficacy and trustworthiness. However, the young men were largely inhibited from engaging in social and civic participation and their lack of community connectedness was primarily associated with neighbourhood characteristics, as opposed to the impact of having an intellectual disability. Implications for future research, policy and practice are discussed.