De invloed van pesten, gepest worden en acceptatie door leeftijdgenoten op schoolidentiteit en sociale angst

Abstract

This research study focuses on the influence of bullying, victimization and peer acceptance on school identity and social phobia. A total of 574 adolescents in the age of 11 till 15 participated in this study, by filling out a questionnaire concerning these topics. Correlations and regression analyses were pursued to measure the influence of the independent variables on the dependent variables. Results show that bullying, victimization and peer acceptance are significantly correlated with school identity. Victimization however is not significant in the linear multiple regression analysis. These results imply that adolescents, who bully more often or are bullied more often, perceive their school identity more negatively. Adolescents, who are more accepted by their peers, perceive a more positive school identity. The other results on social phobia show that peer acceptance and bullying correlate with social phobia. Victimization neither correlates with social phobia nor has influence on social phobia in the multiple linear regression analysis. Bullying also does not have any influence in the multiple linear regression analysis, which implies that bullying does not influence social phobia, after controlling for victimization and peer acceptance. Peer acceptance accounts for the most of the variance in the regression analysis. This implies that we can state that adolescents, who are accepted by their peers, experience less social phobia. This research also examined whether gender had a moderating effect in the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variables. Gender had a significant moderating effect on the influence of peer acceptance on social phobia, because this influence was larger in girls. Keywords: school identity, social phobia, bullying, victimization, peer acceptance