Moral Judgments of Sociometrically Neglected Children Concerning Their Bullying Experiences in the First Grade.
Konstantinos Bikos, Athanasios Gregoriadis

Abstract
The purpose of the present study is to investigate children’s experiences and moral judgements of school bullying. Three first grade classes participated in the study, one from a public and two from private primary schools in Thessaloniki. More specifically, sociometrically neglected children were observed and interviewed about their bullying experiences. Two researchers observed the daily interactions of neglected children for three days in a row and recorded specific interactions and bullying incidents in which the “target-children” were involved and they interviewed them about these particular occasions. Children’s responses revealed significant levels of social distress, submission and low self-esteem, but they also suggested the “moral” nature of the motives of bullies, such as sadistic and deliberate aspects of bullying that are not fully included and described in the existing subtypes of aggression. The aforementioned finding may help researchers to broaden current conceptualizations of bullying and victimization.

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