Catherine O'brien

Bullying Across In-groups and Out-groups: Young People's Understandings of Group-based and Individual-based Peer Devaluation Catherine O'brien

Bullying involves demonstrations of the norms of social groups, outlawing and punishing those who do not conform. The way a person appraises bullying strongly influences the coping process, how they react emotionally, and bystander behaviour. This research explores the distinction between abuse based on individual characteristics and abuse in terms of group membership, such as one's race or sex as a whole. Existing bullying literature tends to appraise group-based bullying as worse, and therefore more difficult to cope with, because it maligns not only the individual but also the individual's entire reference group. This assumption is not grounded in substantial evidence. There has been no systematic investigation of group-based bullying compared directly with individual-based bullying. The aim of this study is to understand young people's evaluations of the harm from the two distinguishable bases for being devalued. Contributing to knowledge about the complex processes through which young people are susceptible to and protected from bullying, this book is intended for schools, teachers, parents, care workers, anti-bullying organisations, bullying researchers and policy-makers.