Narrative Strategies Among Early Adolescents Involved in Bully-Victim Relationships

Abstract

The present study was aimed at investigating the narrative strategies bullies and victims use to interpret social incongruence and the extent to which these strategies vary across the two European countries of Italy and Spain. A peer nomination questionnaire on bullyAndrea Smorti is affiliated with the ing was used to select 12-14-year-old children from both countries. The children were asked to read six stories dealing with themes of social interaction between two peers; each story described an episode in which the protagonist performed an act that violated his or her normal behaviour towards the peer. Three stories ended in negative violating acts (regressive stories) and the other three stories ended in positive acts (progressive stories). Participants were then asked to imagine what had happened prior to the act and to write a story about it. Narrative strategies were analysed in terms of three variables: locus of antecedent, mental verbs, and social intention. Results revealed that both the Italian and Spanish samples used more internal strategies to interpret progressive stories and more external strategies for regressive stories. Moreover, cross-national differences were particularly evident in bullies: Italian bullies used fewer internal and internal cognitive strategies than control children did, while in Spain, bullies used more internal and internal cognitive hostile strategies than victims did.

Discrepant Story Task: Instrumento utilizado para explorar estrategias narrativas en el maltrato entre iguales

“…In Smorti, McKeough, Ciucci & Misfeld (1999) and in Smorti, Ortega-Rivera, Ortega & Pagnucci (2005), possible cultural aspects of these differences are discussed. Note: In Canada-Italy Research, percentages of each strategy on total number of stories was used (min= 0, max = 100), in Spain-Italy research row frequency was used (min = 0, max = 3).…”

“…In Smorti, Ortega, Ortega, Pagnucci (2005) and in Smorti (2004) internal intentional was considered together with internal cognitive.…”

“…The sample was the same as the above described (Smorti, Ortega-Rivera, Ortega & Pagnucci, 2005). Surveys on the diffusion of bullying as well as intervention projects had been previously conducted in both cities.…”