Perceived manifestations of bullying behaviour in social interactions in school environment

The paper provides insight into social interactions among primary school pupils in Slovakia focused on manifestations of bullying behaviour. The study was conducted in the sample of 289 pupils with an average age of 10.6 years.

Peer interactions are very important for the child’s psychosocial development and are of a key importance in the period of adolescence. As many studies from the area of ontogenetic psychology state (for example: Macek, 2013; Santrock, 2013; Di Clemente, 2009), in the period of adolescence individuals start to intensively perceive what their peers think about them and how they perceive them. They need to be a part of peer social groups, have their status in them, and feel they are accepted by others. In this period, there are many changes in the areas of relationships and perceptions of authorities, and adolescents build their own social status in various spheres of life. The developmental role of the period of adolescence is formation of one’s identity. The developmental failures can lead to the onset of risk behaviour in adolescents. In the school environment, the frequently identified risk behaviours include bullying (Kolář, 2011; Říčan, Janoušková, 2010; Čerešník, 2016).

In the study, we focused on the situations in which pupils feel frightened, insecure, excluded from a group, are physically hurt, or are teased and defamed. We studied the perceptions of such situations by pupils at schools. Furthermore, we focused our attention on the determinants of the onset of bullying behaviour and reactions to such manifestations in the school environment.

The findings show that bullying behaviour is most frequently experienced by overweight pupils and pupils who look different. The most frequently identified forms of bullying behaviour include defamation and insulting.