A review on peer bullying reflected in children's books

In this study, peer bullying reflected in children's books is viewed from different perspectives. After obtaining basic information about peer bullying, the internet addresses of publishing houses were scanned in the context of the purpose of the research and 20 books on peer bullying were determined. There are 20 children's books about peer bullying containing the data of our research. Ten of these books consist of translated books and ten of them are domestic books belonging to Turkish Literature. Children's books constitute the basic data collection of our research, therefore instead of content analysis, one of the qualitative research methods is used for this research. The research findings are obtained through a checklist created with the help of literature review. In our research, the repetition frequencies of checklist items in the books are investigated. In this sense, findings about bullying has been found in all books. The book containing most bullying findings is My Name is Jack K12 (f=11). The books with the least finding of bullying (f=2) were P4, P6, P14, P15, P16, P18, P19. The most common type of bullying in the reviewed books is verbal bullying (f=62), the least common type of bullying is cyberbullying (f=3). According to the gender distribution of the perpetrators of bullying, boys in 15 books and girls in 3 books commit bullying. When this situation is considered in terms of the gender of those who ara bullied, it is seen that boys are exposed to bullying in 13 books and girls in 6 books. It is seen that bullying is most seen at schools and, those who are exposed to bullying are mostly between the ages of 7-12 (f=15), The most distinctive feature of bullying children is their inability to empathize (f=17).They are physically weak (f=6), they are the children of families at the lower socio-economic level.(f=5), The bullied students resort to the strategy of asking for help. (f=7). It was stated that the families of children who bully showed a disinterested and oppressive family attitude (f=2). It was stated that the families of the bullied children were reassuring and supportive families (f=7). The peer bullying findings in all the books reviewed are appropriate for the age and developmental level of the children. All the books reviewed are suitable for the age and developmental level of the children. Thanks to books, the phenomenon of peer bullying can be perceived by all children. It is important for the fight against bullying to include what children should do in such a situation in the books. In order to raise awareness about peer bullying, the number of children's books written for special purposes should be increased. It is important to meet the books written in this field with children in order to combat peer bullying.