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SWPS University - Main page

How to prevent a downward spiral of bullying?

So far, research on bullying has mainly focused on prevalence, impact on mental health, and protective factors. A team of researchers, including Małgorzata Wójcik, Ph.D. / Assistant Professor from SWPS University’s Youth Research Center, expanded on this topic by exploring the victims’ own perceptions and interpretation of their victimization path.

#antibullying prevention #bullying #chronic victims #maladaptive coping strategies #victimization

What we researched:

  • The team carried out qualitative studies to gain an understanding of former victims’ perspectives and interpretation of their bullying experience. In particular, the researchers investigated how those who had been chronic victims of bullying perceive their bullying experience from their initial attacks to their bullying exit, how they understood processes and actions causing a situation to become progressively worse, and how they interpreted their own coping behaviors.

How we did it:

  • Nine individuals who were victimized for at least 6 years were interviewed. The grounded theory approach was used to analyze the data, which generated a grounded theory of the downward spiral of bullying, demonstrating hidden aspects of bullying—the victim’s inner process as a response to external victimizing and accompanying events.

What we discovered:

  • The researchers discovered that victims are not passive but rather actively try to cope with the bullying events. The processes are cumulative over time and new vicious circles of bullying involving maladaptive coping strategies (e.g., self-blame) form an overriding pattern of behavior that thwarts victims from breaking it even if they enter a new peer group.

Why is it important?

  • The study contributes to the research body on victimization by depicting and conceptualizing the psychosocial processes from long-term victims’ perspective. The result can contribute to the prevention of peer bullying in schools. In terms of policy implications, the findings suggest the need to introduce school transition programs supporting school adaptation, identify chronic victims, and take every victimhood narrative seriously.

It is important to acknowledge that bullying is a set of interdependent, multi-staged, domino-effect psychosocial processes which, if not interrupted, become a downward spiral and a dead-end road for some children.