Bullying in school(wangta, in Korean) has been one of the critical issues in Korean schools. Because bullying in school seems to be one of the important reasons which have caused Korean people to mistrust the public education system. Of course, bullyi...
Bullying in school(wangta, in Korean) has been one of the critical issues in Korean schools. Because bullying in school seems to be one of the important reasons which have caused Korean people to mistrust the public education system. Of course, bullying in school is one of the serious problems in secondary schools. However, bullying in school tends to increase more and more in elementary schools. So I think that bullying in school should not be overlooked by elementary teachers. Then as one of the preliminary studies on bullying in school in elementary schools, we need investigate the negative effects of bullying in school on pupils' psychology and their school life.
To achieve this aim more effectively, the following three questions were asked and inquired. (1) To what extent have the pupils of elementary schools experienced bullying in school? (2) Is there any difference of pupils' self competence perception according to their experience of bullying in school? (3) Is there any difference of pupils' school adjustment according to their experience of bullying in school?
Three kinds of research Instruments were constructed in this study by the help of some professionals. The first research instrument is made of a Questionnaire which includes the questions about the experience of bullying in school, the second, the measures of self competence perception, and the last, the measures of school adjustment. The subjects were 467 pupils, who consist of 227 4th graders and 240 6th graders sampled from 4 elementary schools in Changwon City. The number of males was 243, and females, 224. frequency, percentage were calculated, and mean, standard, Chi-square and ANOVA were applied to the statistical analyses of the data.
The findings of this study may be summarized as follows:
1. The elementary school pupils can be typed into 4 groups according to the experience of bullying in school: (1) the general group who have not experienced bullying in school during recent 6 months(74.5%). (2) the victim group who have been bullied more than once and have not bullied in school during this term(7.9%), (3) the assault group who have bullied more than once and have not been bullied during this term(12.4%). (4) the both assault and victim group who have bullied and been bullied more than once during this term(5.1%). The percentage of bullying in 6th graders is higher than that of 4th graders and the percentage of being bullied in 4th graders is higher than that of 6th graders.
2. There are some differences of the level of self competence perception according to the experience of bullying in school. The level of self competence perception in the general group is the highest than those of any other groups. The level of self competence perception in the both assault and victim group is the lowest than those of any other groups. The level of self competence perception in the assault group is similar to that of the victim group.
3. There are some differences of the level of school adjustment according to the experience of bullying in school. The levels of school adjustment in the general group and the assault group are higher than those of the victim group and the both assault and victim group. The level of school adjustment in the general group is similar to that of the assault group in the higher order. The level of school adjustment in the victim group is similar to that of the both assault and victim group in the lower order.