Effects of Students’ Grade Level, Gender, and Form of Bullying Victimization on Coping Strategy Effectiveness

Abstract

Bullying victimization is a pervasive problem nationwide and is related to students' psychological distress, including increased loneliness, anxiety, depression, helplessness, and suicidal behaviors. Importantly, not all students respond to peer victimization in the same way. This study examined the effectiveness of students' coping strategies in response to bullying as a function of their grade level, gender, and form of victimization. Students in grades five through twelve (N = 2627) completed surveys assessing coping strategy effectiveness and associated emotional distress related to self-reported peer victimization. In general, findings indicated that the most effective coping strategies in response to bullying victimization were support-seeking strategies, use of humor, and cognitive restructuring. However, effectiveness for all strategies (with the exception of peer support) varied by grade level, gender, and form of victimization. Strategies were also more effective for relational victimization than they were for physical victimization. Moreover, although students identified several effective coping strategies, only the use of cognitive restructuring was related to lower levels of associated emotional distress, an important component of effective coping. As such, bullying prevention programs should target students' psychological processes in developing effective interventions. Implications for prevention and intervention efforts are discussed.

Peer Victimization and Depressive Symptoms During Adolescence: Examining the Roles of Social Support and Internalizing Coping

“…Nevertheless, research findings on the benefits of social support seeking have also been mixed. For example, Machmutow et al (2012) found that those who reported seeking out the support of a close friend after being victimized experienced lower levels of depression, consistent with other studies finding seeking friend support to be helpful for both boys and girls in reducing risk for maladjustment in the face of peer victimization (e.g., Nixon et al, 2019). Similarly, adolescents who reported having a friend whom they felt comfortable going to for advice had lower levels of depressive symptoms following peer victimization (Hodges et al, 1999).…”

“…Furthermore, research has found that boys are much less likely than girls to seek social support, especially about peer stress (Eschenbeck et al, 2007), and are less likely to view it as an effective strategy for coping with peer victimization (Hunter et al, 2004). Despite this, help-seeking behavior for a variety of stressors including peer victimization has been found to protect both boys and girls from psychological maladjustment (Heerde & Hemphill, 2018), especially among younger adolescents (Nixon et al, 2019).…”

Bullying Reporting Concerns as a Mediator Between School Climate and Bullying Victimization/Aggression

“…Bullying reports by students to teachers and other adult authorities are often necessary to get their attention and interventions, and such help seeking has been found to be the most effective bullying coping strategy (Nixon et al, 2019). Cortes and Kochenderfer-Ladd (2014) examined a sample of elementary school students and found those who were more willing to report bullying had lower levels of bullying victimization.…”

Posttraumatic growth among adolescents victims of bullying

“…Positive refocusing merupakan upaya untuk mengarahkan pikiran kepada hal-hal yang menyenangkan, sementara positive reappraisal yaitu pemaknaan positif terhadap suatu peristiwa sebagai bagian dari pertumbuhan personal (Garnefski, Kraaij, dan Spinhoven, 2001). Temuan penelitian membuktikan strategi coping yang melibatkan cognitive refocusing berhubungan dengan rendahnya pengalaman emosional negatif (Nixon et al, 2019), sehingga memungkinkan individu bergerak menuju perubahan yang lebih positif.…”