Bullying in the Adolescence Context: A Study of the Social Representations

Abstract

This study aimed to apprehend the Social Representations (SR) of school adolescents on bullying. For that, 31 students aged 12 to 18 years, who underwent in-depth interviews, participated in the research. The collected material constituted a textual corpus, which was submitted to the analyzes of Descending Hierarchical Classification (DHC) and Similitude, by the software Interface de R pour analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires - IRAMUTEQ. Broadly, it is indicated that the results evidenced the SR of bullying anchored in prejudice and intolerance to differences, being sometimes objectified as typical games of student routine; reality that can naturalize the problem, masking and making it unfeasible. In addition, the adolescents demonstrated a structured appropriation of the bullying definition, its modalities and consequences, which, for their time, demand support for the students, helping them in the struggle of this multifaceted phenomenon through denunciations. Therefore, it is evident that bullying causes psychosocial implications, demanding attention from new studies and effective interdisciplinary interventions.

Keywords

• bullying
• adolescente
• violência
• representações sociais