Proceedings of The 5th International Conference on Research in Humanities and Social Sciences
Bullying in The Context of Gender: A Qualitative Research in Turkey
Zuhal Gök Demir, Çiğdem Karakaya, and Fulya Erendağ Sümer
One of the most common expressions of violence in the peer context, bullying is considered as a topic of continuing interest in terms of gender. It can be suggested that there are significant differences in involvement in bullying between genders. The aim of the research is to find out whether female or male students involve the bullying environments in a same manner. The qualitative study was conducted in Turkey in spring 2021 with 15 students. Data was collected via semi-structured interview. The semi structured interview questionnaire consists of demographics, and bullying. The data was investigated through descriptive analysis with 6 six themes identified for bullying; bullying faced in the family, in the school, in the social, in online environment, in sport activities and in the romantic relationships.
The results show that participants regardless of gender frequently experience all kinds of bullying identified in the research. It can be stated that there is no difference between male and female participants in terms of bullying in school, social, family and romantic environment. However, there is a clear distinction between male and female participants regarding bullying in online environment and in sport activities. While male participants regarded online bullying as having internet connection problem, female participants indicated verbal and visual harassment problems in online environment. Furthermore, the research points out the attitude towards female students as being powerless and weak in terms of physical condition, thus this attitude causes underestimation of females in sport activities.
keywords: bullying; cyber bullying; gender; peer bullying; Turkey.