CHAPTER 6: Conclusions, Recommendations and Limitations
6.2. Recommendations
experience, through posttraumatic stress, dissociation, anxiety and depression, than an externalisation of symptoms through anger.
MANOVA analysis showed that higher levels of variance were accounted for with the individual subscales than the combined trauma model, confirming Briere’s (1996) caution that the subscales of the TSCC-A could not be combined into a single discrete ‘trauma’
construct. This larger variance in the subscales indicates significant differences in the cluster of trauma symptoms that learners’ experience, suggesting that composite measures of trauma might mask discrete and varying symptom profiles. Using different subscales enables the diversity of trauma symptoms to be identified, as this reflects the individual reaction of a learner to bullying. Thus, bullying presents as a subjective experience with subjective traumatic outcomes. Both conceptually and methodologically, therefore, the unique experiences of the learner should be privileged, notwithstanding whether he was bullied, whether he bullied others or he observed bullying occurring. Recognition of this complex and subjective relationship between bullying and trauma, would enable parents, teachers,
psychologists, school counsellors and other learners to empathise and correctly address the effects that bullying has on learners rather than to downplay bullying as being normative.
In conclusion, this study employed two psychometrically proven and popularly used measures (the OBVS and TSCC-A) on a relatively large sample of male adolescent learners. Both measures returned high Cronbach’s Alpha scores. In particular, the TSCC has previously been used successfully to establish relationships between recognised repetitive stressors of PTSD such as ongoing sexual abuse (Elliott & Briere, 1994; Nolan et al., 2002), giving credence to the findings of this study, which suggest that a different interpersonal stressor, bullying, is indeed a chronic stressor which predicts a range of clinically significant traumatic outcomes.
6.2.1. Recommendations for the school
The study indicated that bullying is endemic within the school, and together with the relatively large number of learners who were clinically diagnosed on the five TSCC-A subscales, provides a compelling case for the introduction of a Bullying Prevention
Programme at this school. This intervention would need to address the range of specific issues that came to light in the study, with core components/considerations of such a programme designed to address three levels: school-wide interventions (including for example the
formation of a committee to coordinate bullying prevention and staff training; classroom-level interventions (for example classroom meetings about peer relations and bullying); and
individual-level interventions (for example meetings with children who bully and meetings with the parents involved). This programme should focus on restructuring the school
environment to reduce opportunities whereby learners can bully and are rewarded for bullying (Olweus, 2005). In order to maximise the impact of this programme and to assure
sustainability, it is imperative that due consideration is given to addressing and initiating changes not merely at the intrapersonal (learner) level, but also at the interpersonal level (learners, parents, school staff and peers) and the organisational level (school policy, norms, practices and facilities).
In particular, a departure point in this Bullying Prevention Programme must be to focus on the discrepancy between the prevalence rates of those learners who admit to being bullied or bullying others and those learners who have experienced or participated in specific bullying behaviours. This difference suggests multiple understandings (and indeed a mis-
understanding) in the sample of what constitutes bullying and undoubtedly lies at the heart of the normalisation of bullying behaviour and a minimisation of the potential negative
consequences to all learners who are involved in bullying.
487 learners answered the question in the TSCC-A on wanting to kill themselves. Of these learners 17% had thought of killing themselves, and 5% had thought about it “almost all of the time”. In suicide, every call for help needs to be taken seriously, and it is strongly recommended that the school introduce a suicide prevention intervention supported by the provision of awareness and counselling services.
6.2.2. School policy recommendations (Department of Education)
Most national studies in South Africa (de Wet, 2007; Liang et al., 2007; Maree, 2005; Reddy et al., 2003; E. Smit, 2007) have located bullying within the context of a range of manifest acts of school violence or risk behaviour, thus effectively denuding a full consideration and understanding of this complex phenomenon. Further, the complex relationship between bullying and psychological trauma, and especially the long term developmental consequences of bullying, has not been previously studied in the local school context, thus depriving
researchers, policy-makers and health and education practitioners of critical evidence to inform systemic policy interventions to redress this problem. Although the Department of Education has recognized the need for safe schools (Republic of South Africa, 1996b) this has focused largely on physical safety and to a lesser extent on psychological health and well- being.
As the findings of this study are not generalisable, it is recommended that the Department of Education use these findings to spearhead a national study on bullying and trauma, so that this can inform a comprehensive policy on school bullying, where bullying becomes part of the Life Orientation Curriculum and skills such as effective communication are taught.
Educational policies need to address the potential negative long term impact of bullying on the development of children and adolescents. Education policies may need to be supported by facilities and skills, such as trauma counselling and general health services, requiring the involvement of the Department of Health.
6.2.3. Recommendations for further research
In light of the relevance of the findings and the potential understanding this offers people in both non-professional and professional capacities, further research on trauma and bullying is strongly recommended. The following specific recommendations are made for future
research:
• Schools are part of the broader communities within which they are located and do not act in isolation of these communities. Thus, studies which are contextually located would have a broader application with regard to generating holistic interventions.
o In order to locate bullying within a broader context, an examination of the
predisposing demographic and developmental factors outside of schools, that have
resulted in learners becoming victims or perpetrators of bullying, could yield valuable insights;
o Social capital or school bonding is a determinant of bullying (Natvig, Albrektsen,
& Qvarnstrom, 1999). Further research could address the social capital of communities and how this relates to bullying.
o A different methodology such as an action research study could focus on the development, monitoring and evaluation of anti-bullying programmes.
• There would also be an opportunity for longitudinal studies that could:
o Track the developmental influence of bullying over time; and
o Track the influence of bullying prevention programmes over time (from a health promotion perspective).
• Comparative studies could include:
o Both male and females so that gender differences can be determined;
o Both single sex schools and co-educational schools so that the impact of different types of interpersonal interactions can be examined;
• Compare learners across schools in different geographic regions and possibly relate levels of trauma to the communities within which they are located; and
• The definition of trauma that is used in clinical diagnosis has changed over time, and a new diagnosis for children and adolescents, Developmental Trauma Disorder, is proposed for inclusion in the DSM-V. This specifically addresses the developmental impact of trauma on an individual, and by using this understanding of trauma in future research, better insight may be obtained into the predictive factors for a diagnosis of trauma.
• A triangulated research study combining quantitative and qualitative approaches and utilising multiple data channels and sources would be useful in unravelling the essence of learners’ lived experiences of bullying and trauma within defined contexts.