Peer bullying at boarding high schools and behaviours of administirators

The main purpose of this study is to specify the students' level of being victim and bully within the scope of peer bullying, who study at boarding high schools and in this respect, to reveal administrators' behaviours about this subject and make suggestions based on these results. The nature of this study which was designed with an explanatory mixed design of the mixed research method, was consisted of 1608 students who both study at high schools and stay in dormitories and administrators working at these 22 boarding high schools in Kocaeli. In the quantitative part of the study, the sample was consisted of 556 students, studying at boarding high school in total, which were chosen from the population of this study with nonrandom sampling and purposive scale of sampling method. In the qualitative part of the study, the sample was consisted of fourteen administrators, chosen with nonrandom purposive sampling method and maximal variation sampling. These administrators work at seven schools from five different school types for directorate of national education in Kocaeli. The data were collected with "Peer Bullying Scale Adolescent Form " and " School Administrators' Interviewing Form about Peer Bullying". The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS 23 program. First of all, Kolmogrov-Smirnov and Shapiro Wilk normality test was applied to analyze the data. Furthermore, descriptive statistical methods (Frequencies, Number, Percentage, Mean, Standart Deviation) and nonparametric tests (Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis) were used as the datas did not show normal distributions. According to the findings, it was detected that the students studying at boarding high school were most frequently victimized verbally and least frequently victimized sexually. When the avarage point which was taken by students' sub-group points of bullying scale was examined, it was found out that they performed physical bullying at most and extracting and spreading of rumour bullying at least. It was concluded that there was a significant level of class differences related to performing victimized behaviours at isolation, extracting and spreading of rumour and sexual types of bullying according to scores of students studying at boarding high school. It was found out that there was a significant grade level differences related to performing bully behaviours at attacking on property and sexual types of bullying according to scores of students studying at boarding high school. It was concluded that there was a significant gender differences among the students studying at boarding high school related to performing victimized behaviours at physical, verbal, extracting and spreading of rumour, attacking on property and sexual types of bullying. When the avarage point which was taken by students' sub-group points of victimization scale was examined, boys stated that they were more being victimized of bullying than girls. It was concluded that there was a significant gender differences among the students studying at boarding high school related to performing bully behaviours at physical, verbal, isolation, extracting and spreading of rumour, attacking on property and sexual types of bullying. With reference to this, males performed more bullied behaviours at all bullying types of behaviours than girls. It was found out that there was a significant school types of differences for students studying at boarding high school related to performing victimized behaviours at physical, verbal, isolation, extracting and spreading of rumour and attacking on property types of bullying. Vocational and technical anatolian high school students were victimized of physical, isolation and attacking on property bullying at most. Anatolian high school students weremostly victimized verbal and extracting and spreading of rumour bullying. It was concluded that there was a significant school types of differences for students studying at boarding high school related to performing bully behaviours at physical, verbal, isolation and extracting and spreading of rumour types of bullying. Anatolian high school students bullied physically at most. Vocational and technical anatolian high school students bullied verbal bullying, isolation bullying and extracting and spreading of rumour bullying at most. Boarding high school administrators mostly defined bullying as "all kinds of abnormal, discomforting behaviours". Most of the administrators stated that they regarded "practical joke and discomforting behaviours" as physical bullying, "insulting, swearing, name calling, making fun of somebody and humiliation" behaviours as verbal bullying. More than half of the administrators consider bullying as a problem which occurs at their schools. Most percentage of school administrators think that peer bullying occurs "at the begining of the terms". Administrators expressed that peer bullying occurs mostly in the school garden and dormitory. Most of the administrators stated that they witnessed peer bullying. Administrators divided the reasons of peer bullying into two parts as the reasons of bullies and victims. It was detected that administrators took a large variety of precautions against peer bullying. Half of the administrators stated that "very few or none of the disiplinary actions were reflected" to them. Besides, the other half of the administrators stated that disiplinary actions were reflected to them "once or twice and three times or four times a year". Administrators use diverse methods and techniques inside and outside the school against peer bullying. School administrators stated that they had various thoughts about victim students of peer bullying such as "giving seminars at the begining of the term and enabling students' to believe in themselves" and they made various efforts intended for these students. Administrators also expressed that they did various activities related to parents of victim students such as "meeting with parents" and "giving seminar to parents at the begining of the term". Administrators expressed that they had diverse thoughts about bully students and they made various efforts intended for these students. Boarding high school administrators expressed that they had "meeting with parents" related to parents of bully students. Administrators mostly suggested "giving seminar/education" in order to prevent school bullying inside the school. Administrators also suggested "giving education to families" intended outside the school at most. In the light of the obtained data, practical suggestions were made on the issue to educational administration researchers, school administrators and relevant institutions and organizations. Keywords: Peer bullying, Bully, Victim, Boarding High School, Boarding High School Administrator