Bullying Sociometry

In addition to the general sociometric questions, bullying questions can provide an opportunity to get a more accurate picture of the current state of the class through mapping bullying, as the phenomenon of bullying is often hidden even from the teachers who teach in the class, and the opinion of classmates can be an important starting point in curbing/detecting the process.

The bullying questions ask directly about the three main actors in school bullying, the roles of victim, bully and protector.

These questions should be used in addition to a standard sociometric survey, with all three questions being included alongside the questionnaire. It is important to note that all three questions must be included in the questionnaire for the report to be correct.

In the report, when bullying questions are used, a new chart is created based on the total votes, which can be interpreted in a similar way to the other chart. The program will also define the sociogram differently, using colours to indicate whether a child has been given a role in a question. It is conceivable that a child may be assigned a role in more than one category (most often bully-victim), with the program assigning a colour code to each possible combination. 

It is important to note that the bullying questions are categorised, i.e. some children will be allocated a role by the programme using cut-off points as a result of certain mathematical calculations, but these results must always be interpreted in the context of the class, in the knowledge of sociometric theory and in the light of the continuous dimension (the specific number of votes), which, together with the design of an appropriate intervention strategy, is to be considered the task of a school psychologist.