SÓNIA RAQUEL SEIXAS (*)

RESUMO

O presente trabalho tem como principal objectivo estabelecer uma comparação entre diferentes metodologias utilizadas na caracterização dos alunos que se envolvem em situações de violência escolar, particularmente em comportamentos de bullying. Enquanto que a utilização de instrumentos que remetem para uma auto-resposta colocam em evidência limitações relativas à autenticidade e objectividade das respostas, a utilização de instrumentos de resposta pelos pares aumenta a fidelidade estatística dos resultados mas realça outro tipo de constrangimentos relacionados com a ausência de conhecimento de algumas vivências internas dos outros. Deste modo, parecem as metodologias de auto-resposta mais adequadas para identificar os alunos vitimizados, enquanto as metodologias de hetero-resposta parecem mais adequadas para identificar os alunos agressores. Utilizando dois instrumentos numa amostra de 680 alunos do 3.º ciclo (com idades compreendidas entre os 12 e os 17 anos) da área da Grande Lisboa, os resultados obtidos sugerem que diferentes percepções do fenómeno conduzem a diferentes níveis de incidência e estatutos de envolvimento no âmbito da violência escolar. Nomeadamente, verificou-se uma maior visibilidade de comportamentos violentos atribuídos ao género masculino nas hetero-respostas, e um número superior de vítimas e de vítimas-agressivas nas auto-respostas.

Palavras-chave: Bullying, vitimização, metodologias de avaliação, contexto escolar.

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present study is to compare different methods used in the characterization of students involved in bullying. While the limitations associated to the self-report instruments are often related to bias, specifically because of factors associated with social desirability or underestimation of the problem, the use of measures based on peers nominations minimizes the impact of any individual bias and increases the statistical reliability of the assessments. However, peer nominations seem rather far from the internal experience of their colleagues. Therefore, self-report measures seem more adequate to identify victimized students, while peer nomination measures seem more appropriate to identify aggressive students (with a more visible behaviour). Data was collected from a random sample of 680 middle school youngsters, aged 12 to 17, in Lisbon. We can find different results in the percentages of involvement in bullying, as well as the percentages of involvement in bullying according to gender. Namely, through peer nomination measure we can see that males have the highest rate comparing to girls in both groups with aggressive behaviours (bullies and bully-victims). We can also observe an increase on both victimized groups (victims and bully-victims) in the self-report measures compared to peer nominations.

Key words: Bullying, victimization, assessment, school children.

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(*) Escola Superior de Educação de Santarém / Escola Superior de Educação João de Deus / Doutoranda na Universidade de Coimbra.