Bullying, social skills, peer acceptance, and friendship among students in school transition

• Published in: Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas) 2019, Vol.36, p.1-10
• Main Authors: SILVA, Jorge Luiz da, KOMATSU, André Vilela, ZEQUINÃO, Marcela Almeida, Pereira, Beatriz, WANG, GuoYong, SILVA, Marta Angélica Iossi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bullying; Ciências da Educação; Ciências Sociais; Friends; PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY; Rejection (Psychology); Social desirability; Social skills
• ISSN: 0103-166X; 1982-0275; 1982-0275
• DOI: 10.1590/1982-0275201936e180060

This study’s objective was to assess the social skills, peer acceptance, and friendship among students involved in bullying situations transitioning from elementary to middle school. A total of 408 6th grade students from six public schools in the interior of São Paulo, Brazil composed the sample; 54.9% of whom were aged 11.3 years on average (Standard Deviation = 0.6). Data were analyzed using Analysis of Variance and Spearman’s correlation. In regard to social skills, bully-victims present a greater amount of passive and active responses when compared to victims, bullies, and not involved students. Only male bully-victims, however, experienced significantly more frequent rejection by peers, while female bully-victims had significantly fewer friends. The results indicate the need to develop interventions intended to prevent and decrease bullying in the period of school transition. Such interventions should, however, be gender-sensitive because of differences existing between boys and girls. Portuguese national funds through the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) within the framework of the CIEC (Research Center for Child Studies of the University of Minho) project under the reference UID/CED/00317/2019