Peer Groups Interactions

Although the bully-victim conflict is an age-old scenario, researchers only began studying it in school settings 45 years ago. The most agreed upon definition of bullying includes three criteria: 1) intentionality (desire or goal of inflicting harm, intimidation, and/or humiliation), 2) some repetitiveness, and most importantly, 3) a power imbalance between the socially or physically more prominent bully and the more vulnerable victim. The power differential can manifest among a variety of factors, such as physical dominance, self- confidence, peer group status, etc. Conversely, conflict between equals  is not considered bullying, but rather, general aggression. Another, more recent concept that has emerged in the field of bullying research is the category of “bully-victims,” a smaller subset of youth who both perpetrate and experience bullying. The forms bullying can take include: direct aggression (e.g., name calling, hitting, belittling someone in front of others) or indirect, relational aggression (e.g., spreading rumors, exclusion from the group, hurting another’s reputation). Often occurring in school contexts, which has expanded in recent years to include cyberbullying in the virtual worlds of digital and social media, bullying takes place throughout the school years, from elementary to high school and has likewise been studied across the grades. And since bullying is a familiar, if not intimate, school experience for most people, it is sometimes easy or tempting to accept it as a rite of passage or a typical childhood experience, rather than a problem that needs to be addressed. As Olweus (2013) explains, “being bullied by peers represents a serious violation of the fundamental rights of the child or youth exposed” (p. 770). It is with this understanding of bullying – as a violation of basic human rights – that this two-part brief explores the phenomenon (history, prevalence, risk factors, and consequences) in Part I and reviews research- based interventions in Part II.

The study investigated the differences in the psychosocial adjustment of adolescents based on the peer group to which they affiliate. Two research questions and two research hypotheses guided the study. It was carried out in Enugu state government owned secondary schools. The participants were selected through multi-stage random sampling technique. A representative sample of 2,219 SS2 students from the population of 27,775 SS2 students in the 314 public secondary schools formed the subjects of the study. Data were collected with twosets of questionnaires titled Peer Influence Questionnaire which was used to determine which peer-group values the participants affiliate to, and Psychosocial Adjustment Questionnaire which was used to measure the psychological and social adjustment levels of the adolescents. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested with t-test, at 0.05 level of significance. The major finding of the study was that the adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment was significantly influenced by the types of values held by the groups they affiliate to. Based on the findings, recommendations were made which includes that adolescents should be properly guided in the act of peer-group affiliation. Psychological and social maladjustment tendencies seen at adolescent age should not be taken as “normal” adolescent behaviours which would be outgrown naturally.
Keywords: Peer-Group, Affiliations, Psychosocial Adjustments, Adolescents, Enugu State

This paper explores the role of study groups in mediating academic writing, particularly among multilingual black students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Using data from questionnaires, focus groups, and interviews, as well as academic texts generated by study groups, the paper focuses on the efficacy of study groups in mediating literacy events in
multilingual educational contexts. Of particular interest here is the composition, i.e. the roles each member plays in the preparation and discussion of a particular topic. Considering that the language used in study group discussions is often not that used as the medium of instruction, or that in which students usually do their academic writing, the
pedagogical implications of assigning roles in study groups are discussed in relation to effective facilitation of peer learning in multilingual contexts.