An investigation of high school students' personality traits and their levels of coping with bullying

The present study set out with the objective of investigating the relationship between personality traits and bullying coping strategies of high school students in Gümüşhane province. Following the acquisition of the requisite approvals from the Gümüşhane University Ethics Committee and the Gümüşhane Provincial Directorate of National Education, a sample of 411 students (222 male and 189 female) from diverse high schools was surveyed. The study utilised instruments such as parental consent forms, demographic information forms, the five-factor personality scale, and the bullying coping strategies scale. The collected data was analysed using the SPSS 27.0 programme. In addition to descriptive statistical methods, 'reliability analysis' and parametric tests measuring the relationship between demographic data and survey judgement statements were performed. The data obtained for the demographic information of the participants in the study were calculated as mean and frequency values by descriptive statistics method. The findings revealed significant variations across the sub-dimensions of the Five Factor Personality Traits Scale, contingent on parental education level, school type, and sports branch. However, no substantial disparities were observed with regard to gender, family income status, and class variable. In the sub-dimensions of the Coping with Bullying Scale, significant variations were identified across all variables. A notable finding is the significant relationship between coping with bullying and personality traits in general and sub-dimensions.