The Effect of Emotional Awareness Activities Improved for Primary School Students on Preventing Peer Bullying

Abstract

In this study, the effect of various practices and activities to improve emotional awareness for primary school students on the prevention of peer bullying at school was examined. In the study various games, activities and implementations were prepared for the students; educational information meetings were held for the parents. A mixed method was applied since quantitative and qualitative data were used together in the study. The study group of the research was composed of students from a primary school located in the district of Buca, Izmir. All developed activities were applied to students in the school. As a part of the study, data were collected with the Peer Bullying Scale for Primary School (Child) Form. This scale was applied as pre- and post-tests to a total number of 275 students studying at the 3rd and 4th grade. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade students were observed during the breaks with the semi-structured observation form developed by the researcher and interviews were performed with teachers by using of semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher. The t test for related and independent samples was used in analyzing the quantitative data obtained. Qualitative data were analyzed by descriptive analysis method. The results of the analysis of quantitative data show that the emotional awareness activities developed are significantly effective in decreasing the bullying that existed in the school compared to pre-implementation. It was determined that third graders as class level and male students as gender were more exposed to such behaviors. The results obtained by analyzing the qualitative data also support the quantitative data. In addition, positive changes have been observed in certain behaviors such as cooperation, sharing, responsibility, helping each other, problem solving, empathy, communication, interaction and emotional awareness.