TITLE:
How Help-Seeking Expectations Are Associated with Relational and Physical Victimization among Japanese Adolescents
AUTHORS:
Haruhisa Mizuno, Takuya Yanagida, Yuichi Toda
KEYWORDS:
Victimization, Help-Seeking, Gender Role Conflict, Japanese Students
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.9 No.6,
June
29,
2018
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between help-seeking expectations and school bullying. Japanese students (N = 532; 53% boys, about 12 years-old) were asked to fill out a questionnaire including help-seeking expectations scale and bullying scale. Help-seeking expectations were composed of two kinds of expectations; responsibility expectations and accessibility expectations. Relational victimization on girls was positively associated with help-seeking in both responsibility and accessibility expectations. Higher relational victimization was associated with higher responsibility expectations for girls. For boys, there was a u-shaped relationship between relational victimization and responsibility expectations. There was a reversed u-shaped relationship between relational victimization and accessibility expectations. In sum, much more relationally victimized boys may expect their friends’ help (responsibility expectations), but their accessibility expectations may be rather pessimistic.