Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6833653 | Children and Youth Services Review | 2016 | 35 Pages |
Abstract
School personnel (teachers, administrators, counselors, staff, and social workers) would greatly benefit from a stronger understanding of bullying dynamics. In order to heighten their understanding, we must strengthen bullying research. Despite more than 40Â years of bullying research, a number of methodological weaknesses continue to plague the field of bullying. First, there is a lack of a common definition of bullying, making it difficult to compare results across studies. Second, some researchers use one-item measures of bullying, a practice that lacks content validity and fails to assess the entire scope of the bullying dynamic. Third, many measures fail to assess all forms of bullying. Fourth, researchers often fail to provide a definition of bullying or to even include the word “bullying” in their measures, thus conflating the measurement of bullying and aggression. Finally, most scales measure the prevalence of bullying and fail to assess the motivations for bullying or reasons why youth are bullied or bully others. The current article provides an overview of these five weaknesses present in bullying research, presents possible solutions, and discusses implications for school personnel.
Keywords
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Authors
Caroline B.R. Ph.D., Paul R. Ph.D.,