This work has focused on the antecedents of sexual harassment as a whole, setting aside the examination of differential antecedents for the different behavioural categories of sexual harassment (gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention and sexual coercion) although different categories may be differentially determined, especially when considering the variety of behaviours involved within these. The present study aims to: (a) investigate each category of sexual harassment separately, (b) explore what person and what organisational characteristics contribute to each type of harassment, (c) examine differences in the dynamics behind perpetrating and experiencing each type, (d) examine how individual responses to harassment mediate outcomes, as well as (e) what role organisational context has in predicting responses or outcomes of harassment, and (f) to investigate gender differences within this framework. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to develop models tested on a male dominated police organisation (135 male and 125 female police officers and support staff) in the UK in the first instance, and subsequently on a more gender balanced academic institution (118 male and 84 female academics and support staff). Results suggested that, for the most part, relationships generalised across organisations, such that, male perpetrating, for both categories of harassment, was predicted by attitudes alone, while among females gender harassment was predicted by job gender context and attitudes, and unwanted sexual attention was predicted by agreeables. Experiencing harassment was a function of organisational tolerance and personality characteristics, with different patterns emerging for males and for females. The most consistent finding in outcome models was the negative impact of internal coping on psychological health.

This thesis explores heterosexual, lesbian and gay sexualities in two secondary schools in the North East of England. By applying anthropological theories about social rules and pollution rituals, it broadens our understanding of the complex and contradictory experiences of and responses to harassment and bullying adopted by different professionals (teachers, education social workers, youth workers and a school nurse) and by young people. Inspired by professional experiences as a social worker with young people, and by the writings of Mary Douglas, the research began with a six-month work placement and exploratory study in a local authority education department. Subsequently, data was gathered from sixteen individual in-depth interviews with professionals and three group interviews with nineteen young people. Results revealed a range of contradictory understandings and responses to the harassment and bullying of many lesbians and gay people.  Professionals and young people highlighted a number of recurring themes around communication and appearance, the formal and informal curriculum, and invisibility.  There were considerable parallels between the results and the literature in relation to language, bullying, sex education and compulsory heterosexuality. Participants felt that gender and age differences were important as well as sexuality differences, and made comparisons between boys and girls, young people and adults, and heterosexuals and homosexuals.  Other differences were also found to be important. Teachers were more fearful than everyone else (the education social workers, youth workers, school nurse and young people) about lesbian and gay issues.  Teachers had less contact with lesbian and gay young people than did the other professionals (education social workers, youth workers and school nurse). Professionals expressed less homophobia than young people. Applying Mary Douglas’ analyses of social rituals and rules about pollution and danger to these results provided a new perspective for understanding the harassment and bullying of young lesbian and gay men in schools.  Her theories offer an explanation for the ambiguities and dissonance that the professionals and young people experienced in their schools. This explanation forms the basis of a new understanding on which to build a more coherent and useful context for future research and professional practice.  For example, researchers might strategically and specifically examine the ambiguities in sexual language, and professionals could incorporate ideas about minimising differences and managing ambiguity in their training.

This research is concerned with the communicative processes involved when young people talk about an anti-bullying strategy called peer support. Peer Support involves training a group of young people to support their peers in any difficulties they may be facing at school or home. The initiative tends to be implemented as part of a ‘whole school’ approach to anti-bullying strategies. This thesis focuses on qualitative analyses of discursive devices and strategies employed by young people, their teachers and trainers as they interact. The project draws on video-recorded material from 4 schools in England. The data follows groups of young people over one academic year, and include 6 days of training plus semi-structured interviews, a focus group meeting and an unsupervised discussion. All of the young people who participated in this project were either training to be supporters, trained supporters or attending a school that had a peer support system in place. I will show how traditional research into anti-bullying strategies has developed and discuss how the majority of these findings are focused on quantitative methodology. This thesis will then examine the development of qualitative research methods and show the role that language-based research can play when a different methodology is utilised. The focus of this type of research is on the voices of young people and the role that social interaction plays in constructions and formulations surrounding issues of peer support schemes in school. This type of in-depth analysis allows insight into dominant issues and dilemmas that emerge when a peer support scheme is actioned. This thesis concludes with recommendations for training programmes and highlights the major issues that implementing a peer support scheme in a secondary school may have on the young people involved. It is only through studying the dynamics of social interaction that these findings have been generated and, as such, many interesting areas of future research have emerged.

This thesis investigates three issues in relation to governments’ policies towards the Further Education (FE) sector between 1992 and 2003.  This investigation entails using lengthy, semi-structured interviews with four senior post- holders within the FE sector (all of whom were influential during the period of the changes) and a comparison of their views with those from government policy documents, policy statements and secondary literature.  This data explores first, the ideologies behind the incorporation of the FE college sector, as FE colleges were taken out of Local Authority control and incorporated into their own independent organisations.  This ideology is found to be centred on the concept of new managerisalism, which postulates that managers should be allowed to manage.  This means that any democratic accountability structures and other controls that are perceived to inhibit management freedom in the public sector have to be removed.  Secondly, this thesis analyses the ideologies of incorporation, and reviews the motivators that persuaded the newly elected Labour Government in 1997 that there needed to be a change from the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) model of FE to that of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) model.  The dominant motivators cited by the respondents for this phenomena were the problems in some FE colleges of bullying and mismanagement, sleaze, uncontrolled expansion of franchised provision and a failure of the governors in many FE colleges to make their senior management accountable.  Thirdly, the thesis seeks views on the likely effects of the LSC on the FE sector and the possible effectiveness of the different ideologies of the LSC, compared with those of the FEFC.  Respondents felt that the LSC planning model proposed, might not work in practice in the way that the LSC intended, as they felt it was extremely difficult to obtain accurate data on skill needs from which FE colleges could work.  The thesis also shows that the senior post holders’ views strongly reinforced the expectations of the secondary literature and government policies.  There is also a concurrence among the interviewees, that the structural changes made by Government in the FE college sector since 1992, have brought (and may bring) some negative consequences for FE colleges.

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.

Bullying can be defined as “repeated aggression, verbal, psychological or physical conducted by an individual or group against others” (Department of Education, 1993. p.6). Once regarded as a childhood issue, the prolonged suffering of victims into adulthood, the quality of their relationships and their ability to operate effectively in the workplace is an area of concern. These children mature into adults with self-esteem issues, anxiety about life in general and feelings of inadequacy. Being the victim of bullying can persist in adulthood, as the coping skills necessary to deal with the problem have not been suitably developed. For the victims it may lead to a life of depression and low self-esteem causing problems in adult relations and accomplishments. The victims may never develop appropriate self-confidence, preventing them from engaging in adult relationships and pursuing careers. It may in extreme cases even lead to them committing suicide. The bully themselves appear to suffer in a similar manner. The skills for living a well-adjusted life are underdeveloped or simply do not exist at all. They too appear to suffer from relationship problems, a pattern of aggressive behaviour that makes familial relationships difficult; low self-esteem and high anxiety also appear to be characteristic of the adult bullies.

The findings show that the proactive-moderating (PM) approach is the one most frequently used by class teachers to tackle physical, verbal and indirect bullying. This approach seeks to tackle bullying before incidents happen, and stresses the importance of teacher-pupil interaction at the regular class level. Teachers report that the PM approach is the most effective method of tackling pupils’ bullying behaviour. The teachers clearly see their role as important in that the strategies most highly recommended to pupil victims and bullies are at the class level. There are significant differences among teachers in terms of the relationships between their perceptions of the nature of bullying, their beliefs and attitudes, their teaching experience, support from the Head and senior staff, school size, and teachers’ choice of approaches to tackling bullying. Teachers have broad perceptions of the nature of bullying, so they tend to adopt the RM and PM approaches in the classroom. The strongly humanitarian teacher has positive beliefs and attitudes towards his/her teaching and classroom management. He/she will adopt counselling skills to guide pupils’ bullying behaviour instead of using a RE or ignoring approach. Teachers with many years teaching experience tend to adopt a proactive approach (PM and PE) to tackle bullying behaviour, because they believe that prevention is better than cure. If the Head and senior staff have a clear policy towards bullying, then a proactive approach will be used in the school. Bullying incidents happen most frequently in larger schools. Hence, these schools tend to use a proactive approach to prevent pupils’ bullying. It appears from the findings that many Taiwanese teachers recognise their important roles in schools in relation to dealing with the bullying problem. Both senior staff and class teachers need in-service training, because the complex nature of bullying compounds the difficulty of detecting bullying. The provision of core material on the topic should be seriously considered as an essential part of basic training for teachers. This study represents a good starting-point for school staff to utilise in formulating a more effective whole-school anti-bullying policy, thereby helping to reduce the rate of juvenile delinquency in Taiwan.

This thesis explores the career experiences of women civil engineers in the UK and examines how women negotiate their place in a highly male-dominated profession. The thesis considers why women are under-represented in this profession, are rarely appointed to senior management positions and how changes in the business pattern of UK engineering consulting companies has created barriers or opportunities for women. Uncovering the detail of women’s career expectations and experience was more suited to a qualitative approach to data collection. .A series of semi-structured interviews was carried out with thirty-one women engineers working in different sectors of the profession. The women were in a variety of personal circumstances, including single and married women, some with young children and others with no dependent caring responsibilities. The ages of the women ranged from twenty three to fifty six years with the majority having attained chartered status. The interviews focused on factors that affect career progression and these were discussed within the three themes of subcultures of the profession, work/life balance and possible agents for change. Quantitative membership data from the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and other construction professions has been analysed to provide the context for the research. Feminist concerns about the relationship between women’s role in the private sphere of the home and the public sphere of paid work have led to a theoretical framework that draws mainly on the work of Walby and Cockburn. This has been enhanced by Greed’s gendered critique of the wider construction sector. The findings show that women feel isolated within the profession and t his isolation seems more pronounced for the few women who reach the top and also generally in the setting of the construction site. Despite attempts by some contracting firms to reform the culture of construction sites, this sense of isolation is heightened by problems of harassment in that setting. .Thus, for many women the prospect of working on site is still very daunting. .Equal opportunities policies have a low profile in the industry and this research shows that women working as professionals in construction do not see’ equality’ measures of this type as likely agents for change. The image of the profession as predominantly a ‘male preserve’ continues. and the ICE is regarded as a ‘very male club’ which admits women only reluctantly. Although women report feeling marginalised within the profession many receive personal support from individual male and female colleagues and this factor can be critical to their career progress. Moving into management is seen as necessary for career success but some women are ambivalent about the negative impacts this may have on work/life balance. The culture of long hours is dominant and this marginalises women with caring commitments and reinforces male hierarchy within the profession.

My aim is this thesis is to explore how and why Korean female clerical workers have experienced sexual harassment within the organisational structure of their workplaces.  My data derives from qualitative interviews with 28 female clerical workers who work in Seoul, South Korea. However, my own position and experiences as a Korean feminist scholar are also embedded within the research process and explicitly incorporated into my analysis.  Despite having focused upon the experiences of Korean female workers, this thesis will contribute to an understanding of how experiences of women as sexual victims are embedded within the oppressive of heterosexuality and male-dominated organisational culture regardless of the socio-cultural differences of each society. In order to do so, this thesis first highlights the specificities of Korean heterosexuality and heterosexual culture whilst also examining features of organisational culture in relation to both gender and sexuality. This approach reflects my belief that incidents of sexual harassment are deeply embedded within the socio-cultural features of each society and, in particular, based upon the changing and ongoing features of gender and sexual culture.  The representative elements of Korean heterosexuality are identified as the enforcement of female sexual chastity and subservience and the permitting of solely marital sexual relations for women, while men expect varied sexual experiences. The super-heterosexual forces are interrelated with the promotion and maintenance of male-dominated and sex-discriminatory organisational culture. Thus, I understand the specific features of Korean heterosexuality and organisational culture to be the predominant contributors in the perpetuation of sexual harassment within Korean workplaces. In relation to experiences of sexual harassment, I suggest that the definition of sexual harassment is both flexible and contextual and its varieties diversely constituted within the socio-cultural features of each society.  Moreover, I discover the fact that the victims’ reluctance assertively to respond to sexual harassment is greatly affected by heterosexual and male-dominated organisational culture.  Therefore, my suggestion is that possible strategies to combat sexual harassment would be also based upon these socio-cultural features.

Protective Behaviours is an empowerment process developed twenty-five years ago in the USA. It is used in the States, Australia and the UK in a variety of contexts, including child abuse prevention, anti-bullying work, confidence- and assertiveness-building and the prevention of crime and the fear of crime. Despite its usefulness, it has not spread as quickly or as widely as anticipated. The present study, by an ‘insider’ to the process, looks at the introduction and development of Protective Behaviours in primary schools: it is partly an evaluation and partly a consideration of the resistances that prevent the process being adopted more readily. During the course of the research two teaching packs were developed, one for Key Stage 1 pupils (aged 5-7) and one for Key Stage 2 (8-11), and trialled as part of the research process. One primary school was used as an illustrative study, with evidence from practitioners in other schools that set the findings in a wider context. Because Protective Behaviours is an ‘inside-out’ process, used differently by different individuals, it is not appropriate to evaluate it – as earlier studies have attempted – using quantitative methods. The present research uses observation and interview data to explore feelings and atmosphere and is thus congruent with the Protective Behaviours process itself. A technique for drawing out thematic material from interview data is explored. Innovation in education frequently encounters resistance. However, it was evident that a range of different types of resistance are in play where Protective Behaviours is concerned and that, though the children in the study accepted it readily and enjoyed it, opposition from teachers can prevent it being used most effectively, or at all. The study concludes with some recommendations on how the various resistances may be addressed so that the benefits of the process may be made more widely available.

Mental Violence in present study is similar to a western concept, bullying. But is has its characteristics, forms and causes in Chinese workplace. It is a form of indirect interpersonal aggression and identified through the perceptions of its receivers. It does not involving touching receivers physically but is psychologically damaging. It exists between individuals of equal status, such as colleagues. Moreover, it is a two-way phenomenon, which could be reversible. Mental Violence may be the result of a conflict of values. It is particularly evident among the Chinese New Educated Youth. Chinese New Educated Youth is that cohort of young people who were partly Confucian and Collectivistic for emphasizing harmony but also partly Individualistic and Westernized for pursuing personal goals. For this cohort, the above two orientations were incompatible and dissonant leading to stress. Furthermore, they had a competitive lifestyle which was no longer supported by the welfare of a planned economy this exacerbates their stress. To relieve stress, Mental Violence was employed in their daily contacts, e.g. in workplaces. The evidence in support of this account was discussed and evaluated. There is no excuse for any violence. However, we have to say sometimes a kind of violence is not always too noxious for someone, such as the sender of violence. To some limited extent, violence could be considered as positive and it at least helped people to relieve stress and recover a balance from unbalanced situation. Mental Violence is such violence. It is a result of negotiation and a side effect of stress as well. Nevertheless, most of things are double-edged swords. Mental Violence is no exception. For the sender, it might be a buffer and makes him or her relaxed; for the receiver, it is absolutely negative, discomfort and even aggressive. For helping readers to clearly understand such violence, and for advising others to raise their awareness of the violence, this study would explore its causes and characteristics. From ancient traditional society to the present modern one, Confucianism and Collectivism afterwards represent a kind of gentle culture which deeply influences traditional Chinese. Chinese traditional philosophy, such as Confucianism and Taoism, stresses the significance of the harmony relationship for the growing, maturing and success of the Chinese. Chinese New Educated Youth who were disciplined for such a culture in thoughts and behaviours while growing up. Therefore, to keep harmony and to avoid conflict becomes a key characteristic for Chinese interactions in a collective society. However, the opening policy to the West world exposed China to the influence of Individualism which is absolutely unlike Confucian or Collectivism. Confucianism s influence has been challenged by Westernized values because of globalization. The difference between two values made Chinese New Educated Youth confused in their thoughts and appropriate behaviours in interpersonal relationships. To recover a balance, they need to relieve such a stress from the confusion and other stressors as well. While using the two value systems in interaction with others, Mental Violence usually happened. Therefore, the conflict of two different values in dealing with social relationship became one cause for Mental Violence. In present research, I tried to reveal Mental Violence, a particular kind of daily conflict in interactions among modern Chinese. For pursuing why Chinese New Educated Youth was special and experienced Mental Violence often, they were compared with other generations in China. Therefore, this research invited participants from three generations (Chinese New Educated Youth, the older generation who were born before 1970s, and the younger generation who were born in 1980s) and from different cities in China. Participants occupations covered different professions, and all of them worked in three sizes of offices (small, big and single). Both of qualitative and quantitative data collecting methods were used in the study. They contained semi-structural interviewing and filling up the questionnaire. And main methods of data analysis are factor analysis, correlation and Thematic Analysis. The result indicated that Mental Violence of Chinese educated youth occurred in workplace was the most often, but was largely unseen by people outside of the group. Because I had to establish why this cohort would be inclined to apply more Mental Violence in daily life, I compared them with their previous generation and the later generation through measuring demographics, westernised, individualism and collectivism. Three generations are different in the Individualism-Collectivism tendency. Chinese New Educated Youth were always in the middle. They were seemed as partly Collectivistic and partly Individualistic. Linked with categories of Mental Violence Chinese New Educated Youth usually experienced, it seems they applied double standards to deal with social interactions. Due to such standards made them failed in establishing good relationships with colleagues, in other words, whatever Chinese New Educated Youth or their colleagues did not feel happy in their social interactions, it means Chinese New Educated Youth have conflict in Individualism-Collectivism tendency. Otherwise, through the investigation, I noticed significant demographical difference other than the generation in experiencing Mental Violence. Male participants reported experiencing Mental Violence more than female ones. The higher education the participant got, the more he or she experienced Mental Violence. Comparing with other occupations, intellectual respondents reported sending Mental Violence the most. Participants who worked as staffs experienced Mental Violence more than people who worked as administrators in the workplace. And people who were singles experienced Mental Violence the most in workplace. Because conflict of relationship seems a sensitive topic for Chinese, I started interviews from talking about overviews of participants workplaces with them. Therefore, the result also shows characteristics of structure and social relationship of Chinese modern offices. China had lot of small size offices in which 2 to 10 staffs worked. Small offices organised small relative closed groups. In such a group, staffs had long time for face to face interaction everyday. Such offices were much more than single offices where only one person worked in and big offices where more than ten persons in. Both of the above characteristics of workplace are not beneficial for physical aggressions as previous study proved but could considered as a structural factor for Mental Violence. Actually, the Mental Violence which reported occurring in small offices is the most often, especially among Chinese New Educated Youth. Hope this research could be a model for further more thorough relevant study. All of the above would be a step towards further study on Mental Violence and Chinese New Educated Youth.

The primary aim of this study was the development and validation of a new instrument, the School Life Survey, to establish differentiated rates for the different types of bullying and victimization locally. A total of 562 inner-city grade 1 to 8 school children from two schools in Toronto participated with parental consent, in addition to another sample from the pilot study. High whole-school participation rates were achieved. The validity and reliability of the new instrument received extensive investigation, with excellent Pearson test-retest ratings obtained for both the SLS Bullying Scale and the SLS Victimization Scale. The feasibility of the School Life Survey as a non-anonymous tool was tested and confirmed using a balanced experimental design. The availability of norms for the School Life Survey allows it to be used psychometrically to differentiate levels of severity, and to identify bullying and victimization with greater accuracy and confidence. The study reviewed the conceptual and methodological issues in the definition and measurement of bullying and victimization. A number of hypotheses were set up in respect of the gender and age trends, and comparisons were made with the literature’s existing database. The phenomenon of serial bullying, multiple victimization and familial patterns of bullying were discussed in the context of a new nomination procedure for identifying bullies. Limitations of the study were pointed out, along with directions for future research. Implications for effective interventions and the role of the school psychologist in bringing about innovative changes were discussed.