REFLECTIONS OF THE BULLYING AND VICTIMIZATION EXPERIENCED IN THE HIGH SCHOOL YEARS ON THE ADULTHOOD: A RETROSPECTIVE EVALUATION

This study aims at examining whether there is a differentiation in the current psychological symptoms of university students according to their bullying statuses determined based on their retrospective evaluations. Accordingly, 407 university students who continue their undergraduate and post-graduate education in various universities in Turkey and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus were asked to take SCL90-R scale in the first place and then Peer Bullying Determination Scale in which their retrospective evaluations were received. As the results of the analyses performed, among the university students who were involved in the bullying events in the past, 8 participants were included in the bully status, 71 participants in the victim status, 167 participants in the bully/victim status and 161 participants in the bystander status. According to the analyses, the university students who were bully/victims in the past received statistically significantly higher scores than the university students who were bystanders in the past in all SCL90-R. Likewise, the university students who were victims in the past received statistically significantly higher scores than the university students who were bystanders in the past in all SCL90-R. In the all subscales, the university students who were bully/victims in the past received higher scores than the university students who were victim in the past. In addition, females were mostly in the bystander status in the high school whereas males were mostly in the bully/victim status. The findings were discussed in the light of the relevant literature and suggestions were made for the future studies.