Cognitive Coping and Psychological Problems among Bullied and Non-bullied Adolescents

By : Debasruti Ghosh, Somdeb Maji, Saswati Bhattacharya

Page No: 387-396

Abstract
School bullying has been a widespread and serious issue that affect the youth prominently across the globe. It is also seen that it is a predictor of poor psychological health. The aim of the present study is to see the psychological health and coping strategies among bullied and non-bullied school students in and around Ranchi city. Out of 273 students taken from four schools of age range between 10 to 16 years 219 students were found to be bullied and 38 were non-bullied as per the scores on Gatehouse Bullying Questionnaire. The Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale, Cognitive Emotional Regulation Questionnaire were applied on both the groups. The findings revealed increased levels of psychological problems like depression, anxiety, stress and poor coping strategies like catastrophization, self-blame, blaming others and rumination among bullied school students as compared to non-bullied school students. The amount of psychological distress among bullied students in the present study has been alarming and this might account to deterioration in their physical and emotional well-being and the outcome may be devastating to the society. Thus different plans of intervention may be applied to control the widespread negative consequences and restore the well-being of the students.

Authors :
Somdeb Maji : Psychiatric Social Worker, District Mental Health Programme, Puri.
Saswati Bhattacharya : Psychologist , Expressions India, New Delhi.
Debasruti Ghosh : Junior Research Fellow — Defence Institute of Psychological Research, DRDO, New Delhi