Hellström Lisa, Persson Louise, Hagquist Curt
Centre for Research on Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Karlstad University, Karlstad, SE 651 88 Sweden.
Arch Public Health. 2015 Feb 2;73(1):4. doi: 10.1186/2049-3258-73-4. eCollection 2015.
The negative consequences of peer-victimization on children and adolescents are major public health concerns which have been subjected to extensive research. Given all efforts made to analyze and estimate the social and health consequences of peer-victimization, the adolescents' own experiences and understandings have had surprisingly little impact on the definition of bullying. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to explore adolescents' definitions of bullying.
A questionnaire study (n = 128) and four focus group interviews (n = 21) were conducted among students aged 13 and 15. First, gender and age differences were analyzed with respect to what behaviors are considered bullying (questionnaire data). Second, analysis of what bullying is (focus group interviews) was conducted using qualitative content analysis.
The adolescents own understanding and definition of bullying didn't just include the traditional criteria of repetition and power imbalance, but also a criterion based on the health consequences of bullying. The results showed that a single but hurtful or harmful incident also could be considered bullying irrespective of whether the traditional criteria were fulfilled or not. Further, girls and older students had a more inclusive view of bullying and reported more types of behaviors as bullying compared to boys and younger students.
The results of the current study adds to the existing literature by showing that adolescents consider the victim's experience of hurt and harm as a criterion for defining bullying and not only as consequences of bullying. This may be of special relevance for the identification and classification of bullying incidents on the internet where devastating consequences have been reported from single incidents and the use of the traditional criteria of intent, repetition and power imbalance may not be as relevant as for traditional bullying. It implies that the traditional criteria included in most definitions of bullying may not fully reflect adolescents' understanding and definition of bullying. Assessments of bullying behaviors that ask adolescents to strictly adhere to the traditional definition of bullying might not identify all adolescents experiencing peer victimization and therefore not provide estimates of prevalence rates reflecting adolescents' own understanding of bullying.
同伴欺凌对儿童和青少年产生的负面影响是重大的公共卫生问题，已受到广泛研究。尽管人们已竭尽全力分析和评估同伴欺凌的社会和健康后果，但青少年自身的经历和理解对欺凌定义的影响却出奇地小。因此，本研究的目的是探讨青少年对欺凌的定义。
对13岁和15岁的学生进行了问卷调查（n = 128）和四次焦点小组访谈（n = 21）。首先，分析了在哪些行为被视为欺凌方面的性别和年龄差异（问卷调查数据）。其次，使用定性内容分析法对欺凌的定义进行了分析（焦点小组访谈）。
青少年对欺凌的自身理解和定义不仅包括重复和权力不平衡的传统标准，还包括基于欺凌健康后果的标准。结果表明，即使传统标准未得到满足，单一但伤人或有害的事件也可能被视为欺凌。此外，与男孩和年龄较小的学生相比，女孩和年龄较大的学生对欺凌的看法更具包容性，报告的被视为欺凌的行为类型更多。
本研究结果表明，青少年将受害者的伤害经历视为定义欺凌的标准，而不仅仅是欺凌的后果，这为现有文献增添了内容。这对于识别和分类互联网上的欺凌事件可能具有特别重要的意义，因为在互联网上，单一事件已报告了毁灭性后果，而使用意图、重复和权力不平衡的传统标准可能不如对传统欺凌那样相关。这意味着大多数欺凌定义中包含的传统标准可能无法完全反映青少年对欺凌的理解和定义。要求青少年严格遵守欺凌传统定义的欺凌行为评估可能无法识别所有遭受同伴欺凌的青少年，因此无法提供反映青少年自身对欺凌理解的患病率估计。
