Retrospective reports of school bullying: Stability of recall and its implications for research

Abstract

In this article a non‐probability sample of 60 lesbians, gay men and bisexual men and women, who had all been bullied at school for a period of 5 years or more, were asked to complete a self‐report style questionnaire at two time points (12–14 months apart) to assess the stability of their recollections of bullying. Three particular types of recollection were explored: (1) age factors and calendar reference points, (2) incident or event recall, and (3) recall for peripheral factors (e.g. ramificationsandconsequences). The results suggested that participants were able to recallkey events intheirlivesandplace themwithina generalchronologywhichwas not found to vary greatly across the 12–14‐month period. They were also able to recall specific types of bullying occurring in specific locations with relative constancy. However, recollections of subsequent outcomes (e.g. telling a teacher) were recalled less well. It is argued that this study lends some support to the idea that retrospective studies have a role to play in applied research and that memory stability may be a useful indicator of reliability where prospective studies are difficult to conduct. However, they should not be seen as an alternative to longitudinalresearch.

Bullying at school and labour market outcomes

“…The GBS follows the format of a typical ordered-level Likert (1932) item. We follow the questionnaire used by Rivers (2001), Schafer et al (2004) and Varhama and Björkqvist, (2005) which covers the experience of victimisation at school age (see also, Hamburger et al, 2011). Surveyors asked, "The following two [10] questions are about bullying: (1) Please think back to your school days, up to eighteen years old.…”

“…This study examines the long-term correlates of bullying in school with aspects of functioning in adult employment outcomes using the Retrospective Bullying Questionnaire (Rivers 2001;Schafer et al, 2004;Varhama and Björkqvist, 2005; [3] Hamburger et al, 2011) in the year 2008 by utilizing the Greek Behavioural Study (GBS) data set. Current studies provide evidence for the association of victimisation with later life functions using retrospective interviews with adults who have experienced bullying.…”

“…Chapell et al (2006) and Chapel et al (2008) report that bullying at school is related to low self-esteem in adult life. Smith (1991), Hugh-Jones and Smith (1999), Rivers (2001) and Smith et al (2003) report that bullying is related to low confidence around others and lower-quality social relationships in adult life. In addition, Schafer et al (2004), Jantzer et al (2006), Newman (2005), Ledley et al (2006), Dempsey and Storch (2008), and Orth (2009) suggest that the experience of being bullied in school corresponds to difficulties in forming trusting relationships as an adult, as well as greater risk of depression and post-traumatic stress.…”

Bullying Amongst Parents and Teachers at an American International School: Informing School Development and Policy

“…Boulton (2008) suggested that a common reason why parents can feel unsafe in school is through teacher bullying as they had an upper-hand in terms of work-related power. Parent to parent bullying also occurs as any repeated aggressive behaviour or action that is carried out with the intention to hurt, damage or distress another parent (Olweus, 1993) and that although many children feel the effects of bullying not all parents see or feel peer-parent-teacher bullying (Rivers, 2001). However, teacher-parent bullying appears to be on the increase as competition in schools for resources increase as well as the lack of teacher/management support (Flaspohler, et al, 2009).…”

Long-term Psychiatric Impact of Peer Victimization in Adults Born at Extremely Low Birth Weight

“…However, more research is required with larger samples to replicate our findings and to statistically examine moderation by birth weight status to investigate if children born at ELBW, in comparison with those born at NBW, have a significantly higher risk of psychiatric disorders in adulthood as a result of experiencing peer victimization. 46 and retrospective reporting of peer victimization has been found to be related with victim/non-victim status up to 7 years later. 47 As peer victimization experienced prior to age 16 years was reported at age 22 to 26 years, it is possible that childhood emotional and behavioral problems reported at age 8 years were reported concurrently or prior to peer victimization.…”