'Woodpushers are gay': The role of Provocation in Bullying
This mixed-methods study found that upper primary school students who report that they bully others use the perception that they are provoked in some way to justify their bullying behaviour. While some students provided examples of subversive provocation in which the person being bullied was 'a...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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The Clifford Beers Foundation
2008
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6863 |
| _version_ | 1848745199937781760 |
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| author | Burns, Sharyn Maycock, Bruce Cross, D. Brown, Graham |
| author_facet | Burns, Sharyn Maycock, Bruce Cross, D. Brown, Graham |
| author_sort | Burns, Sharyn |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This mixed-methods study found that upper primary school students who report that they bully others use the perception that they are provoked in some way to justify their bullying behaviour. While some students provided examples of subversive provocation in which the person being bullied was 'annoying', others used their own victimisation as a means to justify their bullying behaviour. Use of perceived provocation enabled students to shift the blame to the student being bullied and consequently to ease their feelings of dissonance over a potentially socially undesirable behaviour. The labelling of some students provided further justification of their behaviour for those who bullied others. Semi-structured one-to-one interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of Grade 7 students aged approximately 12 years (N = 51) who reported on a self-report questionnaire that they had bullied others, either regularly or occasionally, as part of a three-year randomised control trial bullying prevention intervention project. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T06:13:34Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-6863 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T06:13:34Z |
| publishDate | 2008 |
| publisher | The Clifford Beers Foundation |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-68632017-01-30T10:56:06Z 'Woodpushers are gay': The role of Provocation in Bullying Burns, Sharyn Maycock, Bruce Cross, D. Brown, Graham bullying primary school students provocation justification of situation social desirability cognitive dissonance semi-structured interviews This mixed-methods study found that upper primary school students who report that they bully others use the perception that they are provoked in some way to justify their bullying behaviour. While some students provided examples of subversive provocation in which the person being bullied was 'annoying', others used their own victimisation as a means to justify their bullying behaviour. Use of perceived provocation enabled students to shift the blame to the student being bullied and consequently to ease their feelings of dissonance over a potentially socially undesirable behaviour. The labelling of some students provided further justification of their behaviour for those who bullied others. Semi-structured one-to-one interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of Grade 7 students aged approximately 12 years (N = 51) who reported on a self-report questionnaire that they had bullied others, either regularly or occasionally, as part of a three-year randomised control trial bullying prevention intervention project. 2008 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6863 The Clifford Beers Foundation restricted |
| spellingShingle | bullying primary school students provocation justification of situation social desirability cognitive dissonance semi-structured interviews Burns, Sharyn Maycock, Bruce Cross, D. Brown, Graham 'Woodpushers are gay': The role of Provocation in Bullying |
| title | 'Woodpushers are gay': The role of Provocation in Bullying |
| title_full | 'Woodpushers are gay': The role of Provocation in Bullying |
| title_fullStr | 'Woodpushers are gay': The role of Provocation in Bullying |
| title_full_unstemmed | 'Woodpushers are gay': The role of Provocation in Bullying |
| title_short | 'Woodpushers are gay': The role of Provocation in Bullying |
| title_sort | 'woodpushers are gay': the role of provocation in bullying |
| topic | bullying primary school students provocation justification of situation social desirability cognitive dissonance semi-structured interviews |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6863 |