Peer Bullying and Relationship Between Sociodemographic Characteristics of High School Students

Aim: This study examines the relationship between being the victim or bully in peer bullying events and the sociodemographic characteristics of high school students (ranged between 15 and 17 years old). Method: This study comprised 200 students from the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades of a public high school in Bornova, Izmir, in the 2014-2015 academic year. Data from subjects was collected using the "Peer BullyVictim Questionnaire-Adolescent Form" (developed by Piskin and Ayas in 2007), which uses 53 items to examine the peer bullying and victimization levels of students and a "Personal Information Form,"which uses 11 questions for determining the sociodemographic characteristics. Results: The "total victimization scale" and "physical subscale of victimization" scores of the 10th grade students were found to be significantly high (both p<0.05). The "isolation subscale of bullying," "verbal subscale of bullying," "harming properties subscale," and "sexual subscale of bullying" scores of the 16 year-old-students were significantly higher than those of the 17-year-old students. The relationships between a mothers' education status and the "verbal subscale of victimization" and "sexual subscale of victimization" scores were remarkable. While "verbal subscale of victimization" scores of students whose mothers had graduated high school or university were higher, the students whose mothers had graduated high school had higher "sexual subscale of victimization" scores. Conclusion: The results of this study could be useful for further research for evaluating the peer bullying risk in comprehensive groups, including adolescents with different sociodemographic characteristics.