This study set out to analyze relationships between the conformity of peer groups and bullying among elementary school students and search for ways to guide the conformity acts of peer groups toward the right directions, thus providing basic data for ...
This study set out to analyze relationships between the conformity of peer groups and bullying among elementary school students and search for ways to guide the conformity acts of peer groups toward the right directions, thus providing basic data for preventing and resolving bullying.
For those purposes, the following specific research questions were set:
First, how much difference is there in the damage and infliction of bullying among elementary school students according to the background variables?
Second, what is the conformity of peer groups like among elementary school students according to the background variables?
Third, how much difference is there in the damage and infliction of bullying according to the conformity levels of peer groups?
Fourth, how is the conformity of peer groups related to the damage and infliction of bullying?
In an effort to answer those questions, the investigator collected data from 391 fifth and sixth graders in Jeonju, Iksan․Gunsan, and other cities and guns(eups, myeons, and ris) across Jeollabuk Province.
Data analysis led to the following results:
First, the damage degree of bullying was related to grades and location of residence. That is, those who had lower grades and lived in a gun area tend to experience a higher damage degree of bullying.
Second, the unbiased conformity of peer groups was the highest in the order of Iksan․Gunsan, gun areas, Jeonju, and other, while the antisocial conformity of peer groups was higher in gun areas than in cities and in families with a lower economic level than in those with a higher economic level.
Third, the group with a higher antisocial conformity level of peer groups tends to be high in the infliction degree of bullying.
Fourth, there were significant positive correlations between the conformity of peer groups and the infliction of bullying among elementary school students. The antisocial conformity of peer groups had effects on the infliction of bullying.
The study is significant in that it investigated relationships between bullying and the conformity of peer groups, which is important among adolescents. The results indicate that the conformity of peer groups influences the infliction of bullying and that those who actively engage in the conformity of antisocial activities have a high tendency of bullying. In conclusion, it is required to provide schools with a program designed to promote friendly relationships among students to help them form the right conformity of peer groups, administer intensive instructions and disposition training programs to the students with a high tendency of bullying by testing individuals students for their antisocial conformity of peer groups in the beginning of the school year, and work on creating a class and school atmosphere of preventing bullying through systematic personality education.