Objective: The purpose of the first phase of the Child-Adolescent Teasing Scale (CATS) project was to discover significant factors that constitute teasing/bullying experiences of middle school children across three regions of the United States among African-American, Caucasian, and Hispanic girls and boys.
Design: Multi-site focus group design.
Population, Sample, Setting: Focus group participants were 11-14 year old middle school students from three diverse regions of the United States: Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Mississippi. Participants in six focus groups of 8-10 girls and boys per group had the following characteristics: African-American (two groups), Caucasian/White (three groups) and Hispanic (one group). A seventh group was composed of children with visible chronic health conditions.
Method: Group moderators from each region used a semi-structured interview guide to elicit students' views about teasing and bullying. Sessions were recorded and transcribed to produce verbatim accounts. Content analysis was used to identify sources of teasing and bullying. Abstract categories were generated based on conceptual groupings and the research team reached consensus for final categorizations.
Findings: Major categories of sources of teasing/bullying were: personality and behavior, school, family/environment, and physical appearance. "Being different in any way" was the central theme. Comparisons across groups revealed common categories and remarkably consistent experiences. Although cultural, geographic, and social-economic factors influenced specific responses and interpretations, participants endorsed the same causes of teasing and bullying.
Conclusions and Implications: African-American, Caucasian, and Hispanic youth from three regions of the United States described universal teasing and bullying experiences.Findings indicated regional variations in specific sources of teasing/bullying. The participants' descriptions provided the basis for development of the CATS, an assessment instrument for identification of at-risk youth. Knowledge about teasing and bullying across groups can assist educators and clinicians to identify at-risk youth and intervene before negative outcomes develop.
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