Coping Strategies of Grade 4-6 Primary School Students in Response to Being Bullied

Abstract

Objective :

To study coping strategies of primary school students in response to being bullied

Method :

This is a cross sectional survey, collecting data from 142 grade 4-6 students in the schools from school mental health program of Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital. To screen the bullied students, the subjects were asked to complete the questionnaire, which was translated from The Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire, about being bullied in school. Then the bullied subjects were interviewed about demographic data, type and frequency of being bullied and coping strategies in response to being bullied. The data was analyzed descriptively by frequency, percent and compared the difference between groups by Chi-square test.

Result :

There were 110 subjects (77.5%), which were bullied 2-3 times or more per month. The most common type of being bullied was verbal type. Moreover, students used different strategies to cope with being bullied. The most frequently used strategy was problem solving to look for the solution. One student could use different strategies when being bullied by different method. Subjects who had been victimized by physical abuse (physical bullying) often fought back (externalizing). Most subjects who were bullied verbally (verbal bullying) often used problem solving and fought back (externalizing) and subjects who had been bullied with sexual comments or gestures (sexual bullying) often seek help from others (seeking social support).

Conclusion :

The subjects in this study used multiple coping strategies when they were bullied in school. The most frequently used coping strategy was problem solving. Nevertheless, there were some subjects that could not deal with the problem and fought back, got anxiety attack, or cried. Therefore, we should place importance on the problem of bullying and assist students to deal with the problem to prevent the long term effect of being bullied.