Conceptualization Of Bullying Research Articles

School psychologists’ decisions regarding bullying as related to research and professional development

• School psychologists identified student conflicts as more severe when they include a power imbalance and repeated harm. • Conflicts were identified as bullying, more severe, and requiring intervention when they included repeated harm and a power imbalance. • Degrees of professional development did not seem to impact identifying bullying or degree adult intervention was required. This aims of this study were to understand if school psychologists use research literature to guide their conceptualizations of bullying and necessity of adult intervention and whether professional development aids in this conceptualization. A sample of 151 school psychologists read conflicts between students and rated the degree to which the conflict was bullying, how severe the conflict was, and the degree to which adult intervention was necessary. Conflicts were either reflective of bullying as defined within the research (causes harm, is repetitive, and has a power imbalance) or a variation of these features and therefore reflective of a non-bullying conflict. Bivariate analyses indicated that participants that correctly identified bullying scenarios rated these scenarios as more severe. Paired sample t -tests indicated that school psychologists adhere to the research-based definition of bullying for both conceptualization of bullying and determining adult intervention. Finally, mixed ANOVAS indicated that professional development was unrelated to school psychologists’ decision making. Implications for school psychologists are discussed.

Inconsistent Definitions of Bullying: A Need to Examine People’s Judgments and Reasoning about Bullying and Cyberbullying

Despite decades of research efforts, researchers have yet to reach a consensus on the definition of bullying. There are ambiguities around the conceptualization of bullying relating to the intent, harm, repetitions of an act, and power disparity in episodes of bullying. Practically, the lack of differentiation between bullying and playful teasing as well as between bullying and other types of aggression has made it difficult to accurately measure bullying and derive the prevalence rate. There has been scant attention to how people evaluate an intent, harm, repetitions of an act, and power disparity between bullies and targets. If bullying is a moral issue, it involves people’s moral judgments and cannot be understood solely by empirical descriptions of the behavior. In this paper, I considered how social domain theory can be applied to help understand people’s judgments about bullying behaviors, which, in turn, is helpful in improving our conceptualization of bullying.

Conceptualizing bullying in adult professional football: A phenomenological exploration

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to gain an in-depth insight into male professional footballers' perception of the concept of bullying and to explore the essences of this behavior within this context. Design and MethodSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 adult male professional football players in the UK. Data were analyzed in accordance with the principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. ResultsParticipants highlighted that key themes within Olewus' (1993) seminal definition of bullying are relevant to professional football such as repetition, power, abuse and harm doing. Notably, there were variations in footballers' views of the constituents of these themes which were explained by divergent perceptions of how the football context shaped these components of bullying. It was evident however, that certain common elements of the football environment, such as its inherent masculinity, identity conforming nature and authoritarianism helped to contextualize the players' conceptualizations of bullying. ConclusionsWhile some of the identified themes mirrored classic definitions of bullying, this concept was articulated in an individually nuanced, context dependent fashion. These findings advance bullying literature by demonstrating how professional football shapes perceptions of this concept, while highlighting the importance of contextually tailored intervention program to address bullying.

Bullying in Nursing: Is it in the Eye of the Beholder?

The nursing profession is presented with numerous definitions of workplace bullying. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the concept of bullying in the nursing profession in Australia through a scoping review of definitions presented in literature published up until 2018. The research questions used to guide the search were as follows: How has the definition of bullying in nursing in Australia been conceptualized in the literature? How do these definitions of bullying differ? How has the definition of bullying, as used in the literature, evolved over time? The review was informed by the approach of Arksey and O'Malley, containing explicit definitions of bullying in nursing literature. The findings reveal that the literature does not reflect a shared and integrated vision of the exact nature of bullying in the nursing profession. The conceptualization of bullying in the nursing profession has become more dynamic over time. The myriad ways in which bullying in nursing is defined in Australia has important implications for research, practice, education, and policy.

Conceptualizing bullying in children with autism spectrum disorder: Using a mixed model to differentiate behavior types and identify predictors.

Children with autism spectrum disorder experience bullying more frequently than their typical peers. Inconsistent definitions for and imprecise measurement of bullying in the literature impede a better understanding of this difference, and multiple types of bullying topographies create additional dimensions for analysis. In this study, participants rated the severity of bullying depicted in written vignettes of child-dyadic interactions. The vignettes varied across child age (4-15 years old) and described either one of four different types of bullying or non-bullying behavior. Participants included teachers and parents of children with autism spectrum disorder and community members without an autism spectrum disorder child. Participants' severity ratings of vignettes that described bullying differed by bullying type (i.e. verbal, physical, cyber, and interpersonal). Multilevel modeling revealed that bullying severity ratings are impacted by the age of children in the vignette, being a community member without children, and other demographic variables. These findings have implications for research methodology, assessment, and conceptualization of bullying in typical children as well as those with autism spectrum disorder.