Bullying and Social Skills of Students in School Transition

Bullying tends to occur more often during periods of school transition. One of the associate factors may be a deficit in students’ social skills. Thus, this study’s objective was to verify potential differences between the social skills of students involved and not involved in bullying during school transition. A total of 408 sixth-grade students, with a mean age of 11.3 years old (SD = 0.62), participated in this study. Data were collected using a scale and a questionnaire and statistically analyzed by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Victim-offenders had the lowest mean scores in social skills and differed significantly from victims, bullies, and those not involved in bullying concerning empathy/civility, self-control, and participation skills. On the other hand, students not involved in bullying showed the highest mean scores in social skills. We concluded that improving the students’ social skills in school transition might help prevent and/or reduce bullying.

Keywords:
bullying; school violence; social skills; social competence