383P
Bullying in Middle Schools: A Qualitative Interpretative Meta-Synthesis
There has been research done on the effects of bullying on its victims. However, there is limited research in regards to the effects on parents, bullies, and school staff. This study’s main objective is to discover the impact of bullying on the victim, bully, parents, and school staff. This poster helps to fill the gaps in the literature by examining not only the victims of bullying, but parents, school staff and the bullies as part of this phenomenon through synthesis of qualitative studies. This poster will portray a holistic view of the school climate as it pertains to bullying.
Methods:
Qualitative Interpretive Meta-Synthesis (QIMS) was the qualitative method utilized. It was used to provide a synergistic understanding of the phenomenon of bullying. QIMS synthesizes multiple qualitative studies to create the new understanding and was developed for the social work field.
In this study, there was a purposive sampling of related qualitative studies using two different search engines. I used google scholar and Academic Search Complete database. I searched for the key words: “bullying”, and “qualitative” to find articles that best fit my topic. The search returned a total of 11 articles. I narrowed the number of articles from 11 to 8 after ensuring the target population and subject matter was the same as my topic:, middle school students and bullying. I triangulated with my professor to eliminate 2 more articles due to criteria and fatal flaws. My final total I used for the QIMS was 6 articles.
Analysis involved data extraction, synthesis and translation. . Resulting themes were discussed with my professor to provide triangulation of analysts. Triangulation is used to validate the qualitative research being conducted and gives more credibility to the process.
Findings:
This QIMS analysis generated three overarching themes: (1) support to students, parents, and school staff who experience bullying, (2) educate others on bullying, and (3) the effects of bullying on the victim, bully, family, and school staff. These will be presented in-depth along with supporting participants’ statements.
Conclusions:
A clinician or school social worker can use the themes generated by QIMS as part of an intervention process. For example, a school could implement a school curriculum that focused on bullying as a means of prevention. QIMS illustrated a holistic view of bullying. The school social worker or clinician can use the themes as a framework while working in the school environment and bullying.