Children with and Without Disabilities: Perceptions and Responses Towards Bullying at School

ISBN-10
0542519372
ISBN-13
9780542519376
Category
Bullying in schools
Language
English
Published
2006
Author
Karen L. Dickinson

Description

Schools are taking legislative and preventative action towards bullying as bullying behavior has become more aggressive. Schools provide opportunities for bullying to occur, particularly in unsupervised and unstructured activities such as lunch and recess. Some children have characteristics that make them more likely to be victims of bullying, such as low self-worth, anxiety, impulsiveness, and poor social skills. Children with disabilities have many of these characteristics, and research has shown these children are more likely to be victimized. This study investigated children's perceptions of being bullied, frequency of bullying, type of bullying behavior, responses to bullying, the person to whom they reported, and where they reported bullying had occurred in school. Differences between children with and without disabilities were the focus of the analysis. Children in kindergarten through fifth grade in a suburban school district in Pennsylvania were the subjects. All 1570 subjects responded to a paper and pencil, self-report survey. An Analysis of Variance was conducted for each question in order to find any significant differences between the responses of children with and without disabilities. Reports of being bullied were pervasive across the whole group; however, there were no significant differences in reported bullying for children with and without disabilities. No differences were found in younger versus older, however, male children with disabilities are significantly more likely to be bullied than female children with disabilities. Although findings were not statistically significant, children with disabilities reported being bullied at the 'very often' frequency at a higher percentage than children without disabilities. Type of reported bullying was significantly different between children with and without disabilities for several overt, or physical bullying behaviors. Certain covert, or relational bullying behaviors were more likely to happen to children with disabilities, although there were no statistically significant differences. The majority of children who were bullied prefer to make a response rather than do nothing. Most children prefer to tell a friend, or a parent over school personnel about a bullying incident. No statistically significant findings were found between children with and without disabilities for reporting bullying. However, children with disabilities are more likely than children without disabilities to tell a parent, a counselor, or the principal. There were no significant differences regarding where bullying occurs in school between children with and without disabilities. However, the frequency for reported bullying by children who were bullied was high for the playground. Although there were no significant findings between children with and without disabilities, 895 (57%) children reported being bullied at school. Bullying incidents at this level, whether perceived or real, indicate a need for training in social skills, language processing, and conflict resolution for all children.

Get the book

Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Search the book
eBay.com
eBay.com
Search the book

Similar books