Japanese children’s perspectives on the


Salmivalli’s participant role theory



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2.2.2 Salmivalli’s participant role theory

Participant role theory provides important insight into the dynamics of children’s peer group relationships and defines bullying as a group phenomenon, in which most members of social groups take part.
Participant role theory was first introduced by Salmivalli et al (1996), in order to understand the phenomenon of school bullying and peer relationships. In terms of Salimivalli’s view, Participant roles refer to children’s ways of being involved in bullying situations. It is now believed that the attitudes and behaviours of bullies and victims influence bullying situations as well as the attitudes and behaviours of children who are classmates and friends. For example, by joining in bullying or forming an audience, other children’s reactions contribute to the expected behavioural outcomes and consistently reinforce bullying behaviours. In this connection, Salmivalli (1999) explained the dynamics of peer relations and participant role as follows.

Victim(s):

Children are repeatedly and systematically harassed. In terms of anti-bullying pack for schools (DFE, 2000), victims are described to have the certain characters and factors, which seem to make the experience of being bullied more likely; lacking close friends in school, being shy, coming from an over protective family environment, being from a different racial or ethnic group to majority, having special educational needs, being provocative – a child who behaves inappropriately with others, barging in on games or being a nuisance.

Bully (ies):

Bullies are children, who start bullying and encourage others to join the bullying. A key factor here is the fact that other children in different participant roles play a significant part in the bullying, whether by encouraging it or simply observing it. The bullies have well-developed manipulation skills so that their anti-social behaviour is tacitly approved by the other classmates. They are often perceived by classmates as ‘cool’ and desirable people to be involved with.

Assistant:

Assistants are children, who generally have a pro-bully attitude, and assist bullies.

Reinforcer:

Reinforcers are children, who amuse themselves by watching the bullying that is happening around them.



Outsider:

Outsiders (bystanders) are children, who do not do anything and sometimes do not even know about the bullying.



Defender:

Defenders are children, who try to make others stop bullying.

Salmivalli et al (1999), demonstrated the percentage of children in the different participant roles among sixth (12-13 years old, n=573) and eighth graders (14-15 years old, n=316), as shown in table 2.2. Also Sutton & Smith (1999) developed a younger children’s (aged 7-10) version of participant roles which used interviews rather than questionnaires. The findings are shown in table 2.2.
Table 2.2: The percentages of children and adolescents in the different participant role among the six (N = 573) and eight graders (N = 316)

___________________________________________________________________

Grade (age)

Participant role (7-10) Sixth (12-13) Eighth (14-15)

Victim 18 % 12 % 6 %

Bully 12 % 8 % 9 %

Assistant 6 % 7 % 11 %

Reinforcer 7 % 20 % 15 %

Outsider 10 % 24 % 32 %

Defender 26 % 17 % 20 %

No clear role 20 % 13 % 8 %

Total 99 % 100 % 100 %

___________________________________________________________________ (Salimivalli, 1999; Sutton & Smith, 1999)
It is clear from these findings that the majority of classmates were classified as reinforcers and outsiders. In a sense, uncooperative attitudes of children who are not victims and bullies seem to play the critical role to form and prevent the bullying situations. Bullying is therefore not only the attitudes and behaviours of bullies and victims, but also the attitudes and behaviours of children who are classmates or friends, meaning these are strong factors which contribute to the bullying situations.

In Japan, Hara (2002), using the questionnaire developed by Salmivalli et al (1996) and Sutton & Smith’s study (1999) conducted a participant role study. The findings are shown in table 2.3.

Table 2.3: The percentage of the children and adolescent in the different participant role among 12-14 years old, 100 pupils (54 boys & 46 girls) in Japan.

___________________________________________________________________

Grade (age)

Participant role Sixth (12-14)

Victim 10 %

Bully 16 %

Assistant 13 %

Reinforcer 14 %

Outsider 30 %

Defender 17 %

Total 100 %

________________________________________________________________ (Hara, 2002)

Compared with Salmivalli’s (1999) and Sutton and Smith’s (1999) data, the percentage of bullies in Japan was slightly higher, however, as reported by Salmivalli’s (1999) and Sutton and Smith’s (1999), outsiders were the majority in classes. These studies highlight the phenomenon of bullying not only as a problem between bullies and victims, but also a process of group dynamics in which other pupils play significant roles. These studies also suggest that the participant roles may be the universal feature in school bullying.
Generally the children’s peer group can be connected to their obedience of social rules, friendliness and pro-social interactions, and it seems that pro-social children have more opportunities to be popular than others. In fact, pro-social children were found to be significantly more popular (Warden, & Mackinnon, 2003). However, bullies, especially relational bullies who were engaged in indirect bullying, are controversial and have been found to influence the actions of the bullies themselves (Salmivalli et al., 1996). Core bullies take action along with assistants of bullies and reinforcers of bullies, and the attendance of these children at places of bullying reinforces bullying behaviours (Schwartz et al., 1993). Some retrospective studies of bullying indicated that bullies believed that their bullying behaviours were supported by other children (e.g. Toda, 1997). In this sense, children’s attitudes, behaviours, and thoughts have strongly been influenced by the peer relationships, and it is critical to consider the peer relationships to understand the phenomenon of school bullying and children’s behaviours in school.
2.2.3 Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of human development

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological paradigm was first introduced in the 1970’s (Bronfenbrenner, 1974, 1976, 1977, & 1979). Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model of human development takes into account both the human development of the child and young person in a range of different contexts. Bronfenbrenner believed that children’s development is strongly affected by their environmental settings, including social relationships, community and society. Bronfenbrenner believed that the environmental settings are comprised of four layers of systems, which are 1) Microsystem, 2) Mesosystem, 3) Exosystem, and 4) Macrosystem (see Figure 2.8).
Figure 2.1: Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model of human development (1989)

Microsystem:

The Microsystem, refers to the experiences of the individual in a particular setting. In short, this layer forms a set of structures with which a person has direct contact. For the young child, this is usually the home environment. For the older child or young person, this may be the school environment. Structures might include pupils, parents, family members, administrations, teachers and the surrounding community.
Mesosystem:

The Mesosystem refers to the links and interactions amongst settings with which the individual directly participates. In short, these are the linkages between microsystems, such as the relations between home and school, school and workplace. For example, the quality of the child’s home environment might affect their academic performance in school or the nature of peer relationships.
Exosystem:

The Exosystem refers to links with settings that the individual does not participate in directly. However, these settings also give influence on the child’s life indirectly. For example, the parent’s work environment, where the child does not have a direct connection, may give influence on their parents’ physical health or their emotional well-being. These eventually, influence the quality of the care that parents provide for their child.
Macrosystem:

The Macrosystem refers to the general pattern of ideology and organization of social institutions in the wider society in which the individual exists.

Thus, for example, the cultural values (e.g. Japanese culture and customs), political systems, affect the child’s development.
In terms of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory, he discusses that changes in one level of the system could have a critical influence on other levels of the system. For example, recession in the wider society (the Macrosystem) can impact the parent’s work experience (the Exosystem) and in turn influence the quality of the family’s life (the Mesosystem). As a result, the health and emotional well-being of the child is affected. In terms of this perspective, in order to understand the processes of peer relationships fully, we need to take account the complex interactions among the different levels of the system. For parents, carers and professionals, and all those responsible for the protection and education of children and young people, it is essential to have some understanding of the person in a social and cultural context at a particular point in history.
The heart of the child’s development lies in the relationships that evolve in myriad everyday ways within the family and school. Of course, as indicated by Bronfenbrenner’s model, there are great differences in the quality of this experience. Sensitive attunement on the part of the adult to the child’s needs has long-term effects on the child’s sense of self, their language skills and improvement and their capacity to create appropriate relationships with others. At the same time, the individual child or young person also has resources within the self that can be nurtured and fostered to encourage the quality of resilience. Research shows that despite disadvantage and emotional neglect, some children grow into happy, secure adolescents and competent adults. This therefore indicates that children develop coping behaviours in different emotional environments and that peer support has an important part to play in developing positive relationships among children and young people.
Consequently, the words of Bronfenbrenner (1986), written in the 1980s are even more relevant today:
“At a time of financial entrenchment, when many children are being placed at greater risk as a result of parental unemployment, other income losses, and reduction of health and family services, it is essential to determine which policies and programs can do most to enable families to perform the magic feat of which they alone are capable: making and keeping human beings human.”
What Bronfenbrenner refers to here is that prevention and intervention programmes achieve their success by identifying the protective factors that exist within the main systems in which the children are growing up (in this case the school within a community). Subsequently, they strengthen the protective processes (in this case, easing relationships through the experience of the peer supporters) in order to develop resilience in the vulnerable young people (in this case, acknowledging their fears and anxieties and providing them with enjoyable activities and friendly peers in order to increase their confidence).
2.2.4 Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions

Hofstede’s original empirical work in the 1980s was based in multi-national companies and he explored the value dimensions along which cultures vary. He initially identified four dimensions: individualism; masculinity; power distance and uncertainty avoidance. His individualism-collectivism dimension describes cultures from loosely-structured to highly-integrated. The masculinity-femininity dimension describes how a culture’s dominant values are assertive or nurturing; Power distance refers to the distribution of influence within a culture. Of particular interest in the present study is the concept of individualism versus collectivism. In an individualistic culture, the interests of the individual are more emphasised than the interests of the group. In a collectivist culture, the interests of the group prevail. People are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups that continue throughout a lifetime to protect the individual in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.
Cultural values, or dimensions, might be expected to have an impact on peer support systems in schools. At the heart of peer support systems lie the supportive peer relationships. These are affected by the cultural context directly and indirectly. Peer activities are based on social norms and the organisation of social contexts where peer relationships happen. Certain cultures, therefore, may be more conducive to peer support activities than others; the type of peer support offered may well differ from culture to culture. The work of Hofstede has been very influential in companies but it has much to offer our understanding of peer relationships in schools and our perceptions of interventions such as peer support and the possibility of transferring such interventions from one culture to another. The most relevant of his dimensions to the present study is individualism versus collectivism since it concerns “the relationship between the individual and the group” (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005, p.23). As indicated in Chapter 1, Japan is a collectivist society which has a long tradition in schools of educating children in groups with a strong tendency to conform to peer pressure. Children who deviate will be encouraged, even forced, to follow the expectations and standards of the group. Traditionally, older children look after younger ones and are treated with respect. Lack of respect is not tolerated and there are social sanctions to control those who disobey or rebel.
2.3 Search strategies

Search in English articles

The search for this study is designed to cover both quantitative and qualitative evidence and is not limited to specific study deigns.


Database

For the database search, the University library electronic database: Ejournals@Surrey, was used which enabled to access to the various databases, which includes SAGA jopurnals, PsycINFO, EBESCO, JSTOR, Springer Link, and ScienceDirect.


Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Research on peer support in educational settings has increased in the last two decades (Nishiyama & Yamamoto, 2002). Thus, publication date was set as the last 25 years (from 1990 to 2014). In terms of keywords, “Peer support” had been cited in various research topics, which include medical and educational settings (e.g. nursing, education, and psychology). Therefore, some additional keywords (‘peer support’, ‘school’, ‘children’, ‘pupil’, ‘primary’, ‘secondary’, ‘education’, ‘relationship’, ‘communication’, ‘behaviour’, ‘emotion’, ‘ethos’, ‘method’, ‘bullying’, ‘Japan’, ‘Japanese’) were added to focus on peer support in school-age children. Also as expected, database searches produced an overwhelming number of results when using the key words “peer support”, combined with other key word such as “children”, “school”, etc. Thus, narrowing research strategies were used such as “peer support NOT University”, “peer support NOT patient”, “peer NOT “work” and “peer support NOT adult”.



Table 2.4: Keywords and Databases used; The number of hits after using the key words “Peer support”, “School” and “Children”

Database

Hits

SAGE journals

2375

PsycINFO

734

EBESCO

142

JSTOR

154

Springer Link

66335

ScienceDirect

63107

As an exclusion criteria, all studies on peer support in relation to medical and nursing settings were excluded. Also articles in other languages (e.g. Spanish, German, etc.) were excluded.



Search in Japanese articles

In the electronic database search through Ejournals@Surrey, the number of Japanese articles on peer support was limited, and some database did not hit any article with keywords “Japan” and “Japanese” with combining “peer support”. Therefore, with regards to Japanese articles, the largest Japanese electronic database, CiNii (Citation Information by National Institute of Infomatics) was used, and this search resulted in 616 articles (Table 2.2), by using a key word “peer support” in Japanese. Out of 616 articles, 65 articles were rated as relevant and available in full text, however, these did not include other relevant articles of Japanese Peer Support Association (JPSA), which were not available in full text in CiNii but I was able to read them all in Japanese from the JPSA archive. Therefore, all the volumes (1 to 10; from 2004 to 2013) of Japanese annals of peer support from JPSA, which includes 67 articles (Table 2.3), were reviewed.



Table 2.5: Search in Japanese database

Database

Hit

Related paper

CiNii (Citation Information by National institute of Infomatics)

616

65


Table 2.6: Articles of Japan Peer Support Association

Journals (JPSA)

Hits

Japanese Annals of Peer Support

67


Additional references (Related books)

In a further step, some related books were added as additional English references, including Cowie and Wallace (2000) and two review chapters (Cowie & Smith, 2010; Cowie & James, 2014). Also 8 Japanese books were added as additional references though these manuals referred to training and practice rather than to research. It was felt essential to have this background knowledge about the Japanese peer support context. As shown in Chapter 1, in Japan, currently 3 different groups (i.e. JPSA, Taki’s group and Nakano’s group) have great influence on its theoretical developments and its practices. Therefore, the additional Japanese books were selected from each group and these include “Peer support practical book (JPSA, 2008)”, “Peer support for improving school climate (Taki, 2009)”, “Peer support (Nakano, 2006)”.


Literature reviewing process

The framework for critically reviewing the literature was adapted from Neill (2000). This framework combined Sandelowski’s (1995) stages with Gould’s (1994). The research framework consists of four stages; 1) data collection, 2) data preparation, 3) data analysis and 4) data interpretation (Neill, 2000). This process verified the strategy’s validity, and helped to avoid bias. Also the area of similarity and dissimilarity between research findings were identified. Several examples of the review process in selected papers are presented in appendix 13.


Analysis of the evidence from the literature indicated that the majority of articles were designed to examine the effectiveness of peer support in terms of several viewpoints, such as the effectiveness as an anti-bullying scheme, the impact on school climate, the impact on peer supporters and the impact on the wider peer group. This reviewing process helped to understand a complete picture of the peer support studies in both the West and Japan.
There is a methodological issue in the Japanese literature, which shows that because of the popularity of the quantitative method, most Japanese articles were conducted using the quantitative method. While, in the Western literature, quantitative, qualitative and the mixed-method approaches were adopted and also data collection methods included interviews, focus groups and questionnaires.
In the following sections, the effectiveness of the peer support schemes is discussed from several viewpoints, and then the gaps in the literature are presented. In order to clarify the key and cultural issues, the peer support schemes are presented in terms of the following themes;

*the impact of peer support: studies in the West

*the impact of peer support: studies in Japan

*the lack of qualitative studies in Japanese peer support

*the cultural issues in Japanese peer support
2.4 Evaluating the impact of peer support: studies in the West

2.4.1 The perspective of peer supporters

The UK is one of the nations where some large-scale surveys have been conducted regarding peer supporters’ opinions and experiences. For example, Cowie (1998) investigated the perspectives of pupils, teachers and counsellors on peer support as part of anti-bullying interventions in two primary and seven secondary schools where various peer support programmes (i.e. peer mediation, befriending, peer counselling, telephone helping and circles of friends) had been organised for 1 to 4 years. Using semi-structured interviews, 42 peer supporters (10 boys and 32 girls) and 10 adults (8 teachers, 2 counsellors), were asked the following questions:




  • What are the perceived benefits of your peer support scheme for the peer supporter?

  • What are the perceived benefits of your scheme for the school as a whole?

  • What problems, if any, have you encountered?

  • Are there any ways in which the service could be improved?

The peer supporters reported that they gained various personal benefits directly from the training. Especially they mentioned an increase in self-esteem, self-confidence, a sense of responsibility, and a belief that they had a positive influence on their school ethos. Teachers and counsellors confirmed that peer supporters could enrich their self-esteem and a sense of responsibility, and that they used their social skills to care for other children emotionally and physically. The findings indicated that peer support schemes have a positive impact on peer supporters, both emotionally (through heightened self-esteem and self-confidence) and behaviourally (through the development of social skills). Even though the sample in this study was comparatively small, Cowie (1998) concluded that peer supporters and teachers unanimously gave positive feedback about the impact of the training and practice on peer supporters themselves.
In the following year, Naylor and Cowie (1999) conducted a large-scale survey on the perspectives and experiences of teachers and pupils about peer support programmes in the UK. In total, 2313 secondary school pupils (year 7, n=934 and year 9, n=902) and 234 teachers from 51 schools were asked about their experiences and their attitudes towards peer support by using a questionnaire (a response rate of 83.6%). 78 % of the peer supporters reported that they gained communication skills through the training. Fifty eight percent of peer supporters reported that, through peer support practice, they were successful in offering support to peers in distress.
In a follow-up study, Cowie et al. (2002) invited 413 pupils (year 9 and year 11) to take part in structured and semi-structured interviews about their experience of peer support in the preceding two years. From both year 9 and year 11, 80 peer supporters were asked questions about the perceived benefits for peer supporters. The results showed that most peer supporters reported an enhanced sense of self-confidence and also gained the communication skills that contributed to improving their school climate. Of course, these are perceptions and do not provide hard evidence that the peer support systems actually did improve the school environment.
Similarly, Houlston and Smith (2009) conducted a questionnaire survey to explore the peer support programme in an all-girls state secondary school in London. In total, 673 pupils (years 7, 8, and 9) and 58 teaching staff participated in the study. Pre- and post-tests were carried out (pre-test in autumn and post-test in summer). The participants were asked questions about the evaluation of peer counselling, such as self-esteem, social skills, shame acknowledgement (i.e. higher levels of admitting shame, accepting responsibility and making amends) and shame displacement (i.e. lower levels of externalizing blame, retaliatory anger and displaced anger). The results showed that there were no differences between peer supporters (n=14) and other pupils (a control group, n=14) in shame acknowledgement and shame displacement. However there was a significant increase in peer supporters’ scores on self-esteem. It was evident from the findings that across all school responses, the two most commonly mentioned outcomes for peer supporters were development of various skills (e.g. social, empathetic, communication, interpersonal, leadership, listening and life skills) and an increased responsibility within the school. Then this was followed by enhanced self-esteem and self-confidence for peer supporters. The schools also considered peer supporters’ benefits were strongly related to development of social skills, an increased responsibility within the school, and enhanced self-esteem and self-confidence.
In summary, a substantial number of peer supporters and teachers agree that the implementation of peer support has a positive impact on both peer supporters’ behavioural and emotional development. Especially, studies show that peer supporters improved their social skills and their self-esteem was enriched through the programmes. As teachers mentioned in the interviews (Cowie, 1999), the improvements in emotional and behavioural developments were reinforced not only through the training sessions but also through their experiences of putting the training into practice.

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