The Relationship Between Bullying Victimization And Emotional Problems In Children:the Moderating Effects Of Hope And Forgiveness

Childhood is the golden period of individual physical and mental health development,as well as the high-risk period of emotional problems.Anxiety and depression are the most common emotional problems among children.If children have anxiety and depression for a long time,it will not only cause great damage to the current physical and mental health,but also likely to continue to affect the psychosocial adjustment in adolescence and even into adulthood.Among the many factors that can lead to emotional problems,bullying victimization is one of the important risk factors.In recent decades,with the flood of reports of school bullying,it has attracted more and more attentions from both academic and practice area all over the world.In addition,the negative impact of bullying victimization on emotional problems is stable,and children’s emotional problems caused by long-term bullying have become an important research topic in school mental health education practice.Researchers focused on the effect of bully victimization on children and adolescents’ emotional problems,but few findings to clarify the roles of some individual factors which will buffer the effect of bully victimization on emotional problems in step.The emotional problems of the victims of bullying are subtle,self-positive factors are particularly important in relieving or protecting emotional problems.According to the construct of resilience,when the individual is faced with pressure or dilemma,self-protective factors can weaken the negative effects caused by external risk factors and promote the healthy development of the individual.Hope is that as an important part of the field of positive psychology,it’s a positive expectation that individual want to achieve a goal.Hope can be used as a protective factor to slow down or even hinder the adverse adaptation of children.Forgiveness refers to the process in which an individual changes from a negative to a positive attitude towards the offender in terms of emotion,cognition and behavior.It’s a kind of positive psychological quality,which can regulate interpersonal conflict effectively,relieve anxiety,depression,anger and other negative emotions,and promote the development of individual mental health.Bullying victimization is an important chronic stressor of school life for children,can forgiveness and hope help children cope with depression and anxiety in the context of bullying victimization? In addition,different protective factors can affect child development individually or interactively.From the perspective of positive psychology,the present study tried to explore the protective effect of hope and forgiveness between bully victimization and children’s emotional problems(anxiety / depression),and further investigate the ways in which they interact to affect children’s emotional problems.A sample of 708 3-5 grade primary school students were recruited for the study.They were required to complete a battery of questionnaires,including Olweus Bully / Victim questionnaire,Children’s Hope Scale,Heartland Forgiveness Scale,Social Anxiety Scale for Children,Short Version of Children’s Depression Inventory.The study found the characteristics of bullying victimization,emotional problems(anxiety / depression)on children’s,and further explored hope and forgiveness as two potential mechanisms linking bullying victimization to emotional problems.In summary,the following results were examined in the present study:1.Significant gender differences between children’s anxiety and bullying victimization,the anxiety level of girls is generally higher than that of boys,boys are bullied more than girls.All variables showed significant grade differences,In other words,with the increase of grade,children’s anxiety and depression decrease first and then increase,the degree of being bullied decreases significantly,and children’s forgiveness and hope increase significantly.2.There existed significant correlations among bully victimization and emotional problems;The higher the degree of bully victimization,the greater the risk of anxiety and depression.3.Hope and forgiveness could negatively predict indicators of various emotional problems.The higher the level of hope or forgiveness,the lower the likelihood of anxiety and depression.4.Hope and forgiveness had moderating effect on the relationships between bullying victimization and emotional problems.Specifically speaking,children with high levels of hope or forgiveness are less likely to be affected by anxiety and depression after bully victimization.5.The protective effect of hope and forgiveness on children’s emotional problems conforms to the “independent model”,that play a buffer effect on anxiety or depression independently.This study reflects that bullying victimization as a negative stressful event,will cause children to have negative emotional and increase the possibility of children’s anxiety and depression.But hope and forgiveness,as the internal resources of the individual,can reduce the risk of emotional problems effectively.Hope and forgiveness follow the “independent model”,and play a protective role on anxiety and depression independently.Children with high levels of hope can regulate the anxiety and depression caused by bullying victimization.Children with high levels of forgiveness are able to buffer against the anxiety and depression caused by bullying victimization.This study reveals that two positive psychological qualities,hope and forgiveness,can alleviate children’s anxiety and depression.This enlightens educators should not only pay attention to the risk factors that induce children’s emotional problems,but also pay attention to the related protective factors that can alleviate emotional problems.Schools should pay attention to the cultivation of positive psychological qualities,and integrate it into the content of mental health construction.And attach importance to children’s hope and forgiveness education,do a good job of training children’s hope and forgiveness quality,and penetrate into the students’ daily life,enrich the curriculum and theory construction of mental health education in primary and secondary schools constantly.This study reinforces the fact that childhood bullying is widespread,In the process of education practice,it is necessary to pay close attention to the emotional changes of bullied children,to reduce the risk of children’s emotional problems and promote children’s physical and mental health development.