Investigation of the relationship between peer bullying, attachment styles and bullying behavior in high school adolescents

The main purpose of this study is to examine whether there is a significant relationship between attachment styles of high school adolescents who are bullied and bullying. The sample of the study consists of 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade students studying in 4 different high schools in Erzincan province in the 2023-2024 academic year. A total of 443 students voluntarily participated in the study. The participants were administered the "Three- Dimensional Attachment Styles Scale" developed by Erzen (2016), the "Scale for Identifying Peer Bullies" adapted and revised by Uçanok and Pekel (2005), the "Scale for Identifying Peer Bullying Victims" and the "Personal Information Form" prepared by the researcher to determine the demographic characteristics of the students in the sample. In line with these results, a significant negative relationship was found between secure attachment, one of the sub- dimensions of the Three Dimensional Attachment Style scale, and peer bullying and being exposed to peer bullying. A positive significant relationship was found between anxious/ambivalent attachment style and avoidant attachment style and peer bullying and being exposed to peer bullying. It was found that the scores of being a victim differed according to gender and high school type, while the scores of being a bully differed according to gender, high school type and perceived father attitude. The results were discussed in comparison with the studies in the literature and recommendations were made.