The lived experience of being bullied during middle adolescence in Maltese secondary schools : a retrospective study

Abstract

Bullying may have various adverse effects on one’s well-being (Schoeler et al., 2018). The aim of this study was to investigate the lived experience of being bullied in middle adolescence when attending a Maltese secondary school. The objective was to explore how the experiences of being bullied impacted one’s wellbeing both in the past and present, if at all, while also considering what type of support professionals can provide to adolescent experiencing bullying. There is a limited amount of qualitative research on bullying in Malta. Hence, this study aims at filling in research gaps to increase knowledge and awareness about the complexity of this phenomenon. Four participants took part in this study and data was collected via audio-recorded semi-structured interviews. The transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Five superordinate themes emerged from the data analysis, with each theme branching into a number of related subordinate themes. The findings suggest that adolescents who are bullied, face a number of emotional and psychological hardships that could remain present even after a number of years. The participants highlighted the support which they received during this time, which mostly came from family members, or mental health professionals. Based on these findings, a recommendation would be to create effective training programmes for teachers in order to handle bullying situations more effectively. Future research can delve into how the family system is affected if a member is being bullied.