Bullying Victimization within Friendships: An Individual and Context Sensitive Analysis

Abstract

Bullying victimization within the context of friendships is a complex phenomenon that is commonly experienced among youth, yet is insufficiently understood. Current psychosocial research examining bullying is often devoid of descriptions of the relationship that exists between those who bullied or are bullied (i.e., are they friends, enemies, former friends?), and there continues to be limited consideration of the underlying social dynamics and negotiations that occur within friendships containing bullying. Furthermore, there is a clear need for bullying research to consider how wider macro-level forces (e.g., social processes, power relations, and cultural discourses) can influence the bullying within friendship experience. Guided by a social-ecological framework, this dissertation reports on the findings from two empirical studies that investigated adolescents' experiences of bullying victimization within friendship. These studies involved interviewing previously victimized adolescents and young women; the analytical approaches were guided by thematic analysis and constructivist grounded theory. The results indicate that friendship victimization is a hurtful relational experience that involves painful emotions and carries significant interpersonal risks for adolescents. Furthermore, participants’ responses to their friend’s bullying behaviours were constrained by a number of barriers, such as depictions of bullying that individualize the problem, discourses of resistance that privilege overt responses, and gender expectations. Finally, the dissertation considers how teacher-student relationships influence peer bullying experiences and reemphasizes how teachers can be influential allies for bullying prevention and intervention.