Voices from the classroom: pictorial and narrative representations of children's bullying experiences

Abstract

This study investigates children's understanding of school bullying and victimization as represented through drawings, narratives and open‐ended qualitative questions. Eighty‐two children (8–9‐year‐olds, n = 30, M = 8;7; 10–11‐year‐olds, n = 18, M = 10;7; and 11–12‐year‐olds, n = 34, M = 11;9) from a mainly Euro‐Canadian, mid‐socioeconomic city in Ontario, Canada, participated in individual interviews that required them to draw and narrate stories of ‘someone being bullied’. Comments on bullies' motives reflected proactive/instrumental and reactive/emotional aggression, but also suggested sadistic aspects of bullying that are not fully captured in existing subtypes of aggression. Participants' narratives also indicated that it may be crucial to create comprehensive anti‐bullying interventions that include a component on moral values related to bullying and victimization.