The effects of a peer support program for coping with bullying on secondary school (6.and 7. graders') students'skills to cope with bullying

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of a peer support program on secondary school (6th and 7th graders) students? skills to cope with bullying. To achieve this goal, ?Peer Supporter Education? was prepared to let peer supporters communicate experimental group students properly and to support them in coping with bullying. In an experimental procedure, experimental group students were involved in a four week Peer Support Program for Coping with Bullying. A Peer Support Program for Coping with Bullying is a sum of all the sessions carried out by peer supporters to help experimental group students to cope with bullying by means of the knowledge and skills acquired during ?Peer Supporter Education?. A-four week peer support program was carried out under the supervision of the researcher and a control group was not exposed to any experimental treatment.This research carried out with quasi experimental nonequivalent control group design reflects also mixed design characteristics in which both qualitative and quantitative approaches and techniques are used together.This research was conducted with the sixth and the seventh graders from two public secondary schools in the academic year 2010-2011. There were total 100 subjects, 42 of whom were in experimental group, 16 of whom were peer supporter group and 42 of whom were in control group.In order to investigate the effect of Peer Support Program, data were gathered by means of A Scale for Determining Peer Bullying in Schools- Adolescent Form (Victim Scale) in three phases as pre-, post- and follow up periods. To be able to evaluate the views of subjects in an experimental group and that of peer supporters about the program, Social Validity Assessment Form was used for the students getting support and they were also interviewed. Moreover, Social Validity Assessment Form for peer supporters and Model Evaluation Form for peer supporters were administered.In the comparison of experimental and control group measurements, ANCOVA and ANOVA for Repeated Measures were used. Views of the subjects in the experimental group about the program were obtained by means of interview technique. Data obtained from these interviews were analyzed by means of content analysis. Coding of data and forming the theme were carried out by means of QSR-Nvivo 9. Data obtained from ?Social Validity Form? prepared to assess the appropriateness of the program in terms of social validity and ?Model Evaluation Form for Peer Supporter? yielding peer supporter views about peer support interviews were analyzed by means of using percentages and frequencies.Statistical analyses carried out to examine the effect of the program indicated that coping skills of the subjects both in an experimental and a control group showed significant improvement. On the other hand, in the comparison of experimental and control groups? post and follow-up measurements, no significant difference was found. In other words, in post and follow up measurements the coping levels of the sixth and the seventh grade students taking part in peer support program for coping with bullying did not differ (improve) significantly from that of those who did not take part in the program. However, interviews with the students in an experimental group indicated that most of them found peer support program effective in the development of their coping skills, they stated that they understand and apply coping styles and the program is beneficial for them.Key Words: Coping With Bullying, Peer Support Programme, Peer Supporters, Secondary School Students.