Factors contributing to in-school bullying victimization among early adolescents – focus group discussions

Introduction: Bullying is a significant peer problem among school going adolescents which has many reported undesirable consequences. Identification of contributory factors of victimization is beneficial in addressing the bullying prevention programs.
Objectives: To identify and explore the contributory factors of bullying victimization among school going adolescents in selected educational zone in Sri Lanka.
Methods: Focus group discussions (FGD) were conducted among grade eight students from six randomly selected schools from each category of schools in the Kegalle educational zone. A convenient sampling technique was used to select the participants for each FGD. Thematic analysis was performed manually on the collected data.
Results: Five main themes, namely, external appearance, problems with speech, suffering from illnesses, socioeconomic background and being a ‘newcomer’ were identified in the thematic analysis.
Conclusions & Recommendations: Multiple contributory factors of in-school bullying victimization were identified in these focus group discussions. Therefore, the necessity of addressing the above factors, when addressing them in prevention programs is highlighted.