Ryan WİSE, Maham SHAKOOR, Hale Bolak BORATAV

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TOLL OF HIGH SCHOOL BULLYING: SOCIAL ANXIETY AND COPING STRATEGIES IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

This qualitative study examines the enduring impact of high school bullying experiences on social anxiety among university students. Utilizing online semistructured interviews conducted via Zoom, data was gathered from eight (N=8) university students who selfidentified as victims of bullying during their high school years. The interview questions asked participants about the nature of bullying experienced, the dynamics of the bullyvictim relationship, the psychological and emotional repercussions, and the coping mechanisms employed. The collected data underwent a rigorous thematic analysis employing Braun and Clarke's (2013) sixstage approach. The findings reveal a significant association between high school bullying and subsequent social anxiety. The analysis uncovers six prominent emergent themes: (1) Emotional and Verbal Bullying, (2) Physical Bullying, (3) the relationship between Bully and Victim, (4) the Psychological and Emotional Impact of High School Bullying, (5) Social Anxiety and Adjustment to University Life, and (6) Coping Strategies. These themes contribute to a deeper understanding of the participants' past experiences, illuminating the enduring effects of high school bullying on psychological wellbeing. The significance of this research is discussed concerning its implications for educational institutions, mental health services, professionals, interventions, and future research directions. The study advocates for further investigations in this area, given the longterm implications on the mental health of victims, and contributes to the growing body of literature positing bullying as a significant public health concern.

Keywords:

High school bullying, social anxiety university students, psychological and emotional impacts, thematic analysis,

PDF

___

Anderson, M., Kaufman, J., Simon, T. R., Barrios, L., Paulozzi, L., Ryan, G., Hammond, R., Modzeleski, W., Feucht, T., Potter, L., & School-Associated Violent Deaths Study Group. (2001). School-associated violent deaths in the United States, 1994-1999. JAMA, 286(21), 2695-2702. doi:10.1001/jama.286.21.2695
Andreou, E., Roussi‐Vergou, C., Didaskalou, E., & Skrzypiec, G. (2020). School bullying, subjective well‐being, and resilience. Psychology in the Schools, 57(8), 1193-1207. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22409
Arseneault, L., Bowes, L., & Shakoor, S. (2010). Bullying victimization in youths and mental health problems:‘Much ado about nothing’?. Psychological med-icine, 40(5), 717-729.
Arslan, G., Allen, KA. & Tanhan, A. (2021). School bullying, mental health, and wellbeing in adolescents: Mediating impact of positive psychological orienta-tions. Child Indicators Research 14, 1007-1026. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-020-09780-2
Arslan, S., Hallett, V., Akkas, E., & Akkas, O. A. (2012). Bullying and vic-timization among Turkish children and adolescents: Examining prevalence and as-sociated health symptoms. European Journal of Pediatrics, 171(10), 1549-1557. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-012-1782-9
Beck, A.T. (1967). Depression. Harper and Row: New York.
Bauman, S., Toomey, R. B., & Walker, J. L. (2013). Associations among bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide in high school students. Journal of Adoles-cence, 36(2), 341-350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2012.12.001
Boulton, M. J. (2013). Associations between adults' recalled childhood bully-ing victimization, current social anxiety, coping, and self-blame: evidence for mod-eration and indirect effects. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 26(3), 270-292.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2013). Successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners. Sage Publications.
Brook, C. A., & Willoughby, T. (2015). The social ties that bind: Social anx-iety and academic achievement across the university years. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44(5), 1139-1152. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0262-8
Bryson, S. L., Brady, C. M., Childs, K. K., & Gryglewicz, K. (2021). A lon-gitudinal assessment of the relationship between bullying victimization, symptoms of depression, emotional problems, and thoughts of self-harm among middle and high school students. International Journal of Bullying Prevention, 3, 182-195.
Bulut, S. (2019). Why mobbing is important. Journal of Behavioral Science and Psychology, 2(3), 1-6.
Case, L., & Smith, T. B. (2000). Ethnic representation in a sample of the lit-erature of applied psychology. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68(6), 1107–1110. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.68.6.1107
Cook, C. R., Williams, K. R., Guerra, N. G., Kim, T. E., & Sadek, S. (2010). Predictors of bullying and victimization in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analytic investigation. School Psychology Quarterly, 25(2), 65. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020149
Copeland, W. E., Wolke, D., Angold, A., & Costello, E. J. (2013). Adult psychiatric outcomes of bullying and being bullied by peers in childhood and ado-lescence. JAMA Psychiatry, 70(4), 419-426. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.504
Cornell, D., Gregory, A., Huang, F., & Fan, X. (2013). Perceived prevalence of teasing and bullying predicts high school dropout rates. Journal of Educational Psychology, 105(1), 138. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0030416
Coyle, S., Malecki, C.K. & Emmons, J. Keep Your Friends Close: Exploring the associations of bullying, peer social support, and social anxiety. Contemporary School Psychology 25, 230–242. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-019-00250-3
Darney, C., Howcroft, G., & Stroud, L. (2013). The impact that bullying at school has on an individual's self-esteem during young adulthood. International Journal of Education and Research, 1(8), 1-16.
DeLara, E. W. (2019). Consequences of childhood bullying on mental health and relationships for young adults. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 28(9), 2379-2389. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1197-y
Fugard, A. J. B, & Potts, H. W. W. (2015). Supporting thinking on sample sizes for thematic analyses: A quantitative tool. International Journal of Social Re-search Methodology, 18(6), 669-684. doi:10.1080/13645579.2015.1005453
Goodboy, A. K., Martin, M. M., & Goldman, Z. W. (2016). Students’ expe-riences of bullying in high school and their adjustment and motivation during the first semester of college. Western Journal of Communication, 80(1), 60-78.
Halliday, S., Gregory, T., Taylor, A., Digenis, C., & Turnbull, D. (2021). The impact of bullying victimization in early adolescence on subsequent psychoso-cial and academic outcomes across the adolescent period: A systematic review. Journal of School Violence, 20(3), 351-373.
Hellström, L., & Beckman, L. (2020). Adolescents’ perception of gender dif-ferences in bullying. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 61(1), 90-96.
Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2010). Bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide. Archives of Suicide Research, 14(3), 206-221. https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2010.494133
Hong, J. S., Espelage, D. L., & Rose, C. A. (2019). Bullying, peer victimiza-tion, and child and adolescent health: An introduction to the special issue. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 28, 2329-2334.
Holt, M. K., Greif Green, J., Reid, G., DiMeo, A., Espelage, D. L., Felix, E. D., Furlong, J. M., Poteat, P. V., & Sharkey, J. D. (2014). Associations between past bullying experiences and psychosocial and academic functioning among col-lege students. Journal of American College Health, 62(8), 552-560. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2014.947990
Ledwell, M., & King, V. (2015). Bullying and internalizing problems: Gen-der differences and the buffering role of parental communication. Journal of Fami-ly Issues, 36(5), 543-566.
Lee, J., & Lim, J. J. (2019). Workplace bullying and job attitudes: The mod-erating role of coping strategies. International Journal of Business and Infor-mation, 14(1), 1-24.
McCabe, R. E., Antony, M. M., Summerfeldt, L. J., Liss, A., & Swinson, R. P. (2003). Preliminary examination of the relationship between anxiety disorders in adults and self-reported history of teasing or bullying experiences. Cognitive Be-haviour Therapy, 32(4), 187-193. https://doi.org/10.1080/16506070310005051
Meng, T., He, Y., Zhang, Q., Yu, F., Zhao, L., Zhang, S., ... & Liu, J. (2021). Analysis of features of social anxiety and exploring the relationship be-tween childhood major adverse experiences and social anxiety in early adulthood among Chinese college students. Journal of Affective Disorders, 292, 614-622. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.05.105
Mishna, F. (2012). Bullying: A guide to research, intervention, and preven-tion. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199795406.001.0001
Morrison, A. S., & Heimberg, R. G. (2013). Social anxiety and social anxie-ty disorder. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 9(1), 249-274. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050212-185631
Nikiforou, M., Georgiou, S. N., & Stavrinides, P. (2013). Attachment to par-ents and peers as a parameter of bullying and victimization. Journal of Criminolo-gy, 2013, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/484871
Olweus, D. (1978). Aggression in the schools: Bullies and whipping boys. Washington, D.C.: Hemisphere (Wiley).
Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at school: What we know and what we can do. Oxford: Blackwell
Olweus, D. (2010). Bullying in schools: Facts and intervention. Kriminalis-tik, 64(6), 351-61.
Pabian, S., Dehue, F., Völlink, T., & Vandebosch, H. (2022). Exploring the perceived negative and positive long‐term impact of adolescent bullying victimiza-tion: A cross‐national investigation. Aggressive Behavior, 48(2), 205-218.
Porhola M., Almonkari, M., & Kunttu, K. (2019). Bullying and social anxie-ty experiences in university learning situations. Social Psychology of Education, 22(3), 723-742. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-019-09496-4
Rigby, K. (2003). Consequences of bullying in schools. The Canadian Jour-nal of Psychiatry, 48(9), 583-590.
Rodríguez-Muñoz, A., Moreno-Jiménez, B., & Sanz-Vergel, A. I. (2015). Reciprocal relations between workplace bullying, anxiety, and vigor: A two-wave longitudinal study. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 28(5), 514-530.
Samara, M., Da Silva Nascimento, B., El-Asam, A., Hammuda, S., & Khat-tab, N. (2021). How can bullying victimisation lead to lower academic achieve-ment? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the mediating role of cognitive-motivational factors. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(5), 2209.
Shing, E. Z., Jayawickreme, E., & Waugh, C. E. (2016). Contextual positive coping as a factor contributing to resilience after disasters. Journal of Clinical Psy-chology, 72(12), 1287-1306. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22327
Shiota, M. N. (2006). Silver linings and candles in the dark: differences among positive coping strategies in predicting subjective well-being. Emotion, 6(2), 335–339. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.6.2.335.
Smith, K. F., & Caron, S. L. (2022). Exploring the experiences and impact of middle school and high school bullying: A qualitative analysis of interviews with college women. Current Psychology, pp. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03267-9
Terry, G., Hayfield, N., Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2017). Thematic analysis. The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology, 2, 17-37. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526405555.n2
Vaillancourt, T., Hymel, S., & McDougall, P. (2013). The biological under-pinnings of peer victimization: Understanding why and how the effects of bullying can last a lifetime. Theory into Practice, 52(4), 241-248. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2013.829726
Vanderbilt, D., & Augustyn, M. (2010). The effects of bullying. Paediatrics and Child Health, 20(7), 315-320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paed.2010.03.008
Van Orden, K. A., Witte, T. K., Cukrowicz, K. C., Braithwaite, S. R., Selby, E. A., & Joiner Jr, T. E. (2010). The interpersonal theory of suicide. Psychological review, 117(2), 575.
Vasileiou, K., Barnett, J., Thorpe, S. et al. (2018). Characterising and justify-ing sample size sufficiency in interview-based studies: Systematic analysis of quali-tative health research over a 15-year period. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 18(1), 148. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-018-0594-7
Wolke, D., & Lereya, S. T. (2015). Long-term effects of bullying. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 100(9), 879-885. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2014-306667
Wu, X., Qi, J., & Zhen, R. (2021). Bullying victimization and adolescents’ social anxiety: Roles of shame and self-esteem. Child Indicators Research, 14, 769-781.
Yoon, D., Shipe, S. L., Park, J., & Yoon, M. (2021). Bullying patterns and their associations with child maltreatment and adolescent psychosocial problems. Children and Youth Services Review, 129, 106178.
Zarate-Garza, P. P., Biggs, B. K., Croarkin, P. D., Morath, B. B., Leffler, J., Cuellar-Barboza, A. M., & Tye, S. J. (2017). How well do we understand the long-term health implications of childhood bullying? Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 25(2), 89-95. doi:10.1097/HRP.0000000000000137