DIFERENCIA ENTRE LOS MODELOS CONCEPTUALES Y LAS TEORÍAS

Research Design

Methodological Approach. This current study is informed by Grounded Theory,

which was developed through the work of Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss (1967) and had its’ foundation in the constant comparative method (Glaser, 1965). As codes develop and themes emerge, a theory is usually formulated based on analysis of gathered data. In this study, it is the hope that a new theory or new perspectives on forgiveness among college students with past bullying victimization experiences will be formulated.

Recruitment Process As part of a larger scale study on bullying victimization,

1,500 first-year college students completed the California Bullying Victimization Scale (CBVS), a valid and reliable instrument (Felix et al., 2011) during the fall of 2012 about their history of bullying, other childhood victimization, physical health, substance abuse, and mental health, as well as their initial adjustment to college. As a behaviorally based self-report measure of peer victimization, the CBVS assessed the frequency and characteristics of seven forms of bullying victimization, such as having been teased or called names by another student or pushed or having been left out of a group or ignored. Respondents who indicated on the CBVS that they experienced intentional victimization at least 2–3 times a month from an aggressor who they perceived to be more powerful were identified as targets of bullying.

In a preliminary study, 68 first-year college students in one college sample endorsed bullying victimization on this college student survey. These students were

contacted through email and invited to participate in an interview in the spring of 2013. 26 students (38% participation rate) participated in semi-structured interviews that collected data on their past victimization experiences as well as their adjustment during their first year of college. Findings of this research showed both the negative effects of past bullying victimization and promising results of students’ resiliency in college.

The current study followed up with the 26 students in the sample three years later

when they were in their senior year in college, who participated in the above-mentioned qualitative study and endorsed permission to be contacted for later research, as well as 2 students who consented to participate in the first study but were not able to complete the interviews. 15 out of 28 students responded to the emails and completed the interviews for this study, with a relatively high response rate of 54%.

One of the research questions of the study aims to address the relationship between forgiveness and participants’ psychological functioning, it is therefore important to investigate participants’ current perspectives on past victimization experience, including their memories of past events, current thoughts and feelings, as well as their

understanding of the nature of these events. These perspectives help with the investigation of participants’ overall psychological functioning in college. An

understanding of participants’ college experience is also important to answer questions about participants’ psychological functioning and its contexts. Participants in this study were asked about their overall impressions of college; they were also asked to identify successes, challenges and support in college. To understand participants’ perspectives on forgiveness, questions were asked about how they define forgiveness, and how their

definitions apply to their own thoughts, feelings and behaviors toward their transgressors and past transgression.

Informed by the review of current literature and the research questions, semi- structured interview questions with the participants addressed the following areas: overall college life experience, negative peer interactions prior to college, general coping

strategies, and current perspectives on forgiveness. These questions aimed to gather data on participants’ lived experience of bullying victimization, stress and coping in relation to their victimization experiences, overall mental health and relational experiences in college, as well as their lived experience of forgiveness or non-forgiveness.

Participants. Participants were 15 senior year students from a university in the Northeast who met criteria for prior bullying victimization on the California Bullying Victimization Survey (CBVS) (Felix et al., 2011). Students were between 22 and 23 years old, and 13 self-identified as females, one self-identified as male and one identified as non-gendered. The self-reported racial and/or ethnic identity of the participants was: White (n = 6), White Hispanic (n = 4), Asian (n =2), White/Cuban (n=1), Hispanic (n = 1), White/Black or African (n = 1). One student identified as homosexual, one as bisexual, one as questioning, and 12 as heterosexual.

Participant Age Gender Sexual Orientation Race and Ethnicity

A 22 Non-Gendered Questioning White/Hispanic

B 22 Female Heterosexual White

C 22 Female Heterosexual White/Cuban

D 22 Female Heterosexual Asian

E 22 Female Heterosexual Asian

F 22 Female Heterosexual Hispanic

G 22 Female Heterosexual White

H 23 Male Heterosexual White

I 22 Female Heterosexual White/Hispanic

J 22 Female Homosexual White

K 23 Female Heterosexual White/Black or African _American

L 22 Female Heterosexual White

M 22 Female Heterosexual White

N 22 Female Heterosexual White /Hispanic

O 22 Female Bisexual White/Hispanic

Table 1. Participant Profiles

Data Collection. The author and two graduate students in psychology conducted

semi-structured interviews in person. Interviews were between 30 to 60 minutes in length and were conducted between March and April of 2016 during the business hours of Student Health Services of the university in consideration of participant’s potential emergency needs for mental health support. At the beginning of each interview, the participating individual was informed of the confidential and voluntary nature of the study, and asked to read an informed consent to determine whether they would like to

recording of the interviews started.

Interview data analysis used an inductive thematic analysis procedure with the assistance of NVivo 10, a computer software designed for qualitative research. The goal of the analyses was to identify themes that emerge in the data. Given the explorative nature of the study, no hypotheses have been set forth.

Researchers. The principal investigator of this research collaborated with university

faculty members with expertise in bullying prevention and social adjustment as well as forgiveness research. Graduate students and undergraduate students in the Social Adjustment and Bullying Prevention Lab of Boston University were also involved in the data collection and analysis process. The researchers participating in this study all received training in qualitative methods and methodology including interview skills as well as effective ways to conduct a study that minimize personal biases and generate credible findings.

Data Analysis. Analysis of collected data involved the following steps: a) Two

graduate research assistants transcribed all recorded interviews; b) the leading researcher “cleaned” the data by listening to the recordings again to make sure all data were

transcribed correctly; c) the leading researcher entered enter all data into NVivo 10, and used the software to assist first-stage open coding; d) codes were summarized into

categories; e) themes were generated, discussed, and examined throughout the transcribed data; and f) the investigator identified new models of understanding forgiveness among college students with past bullying victimization experiences based on thematic analyses.

Establishing Credibility

In order to establish trustworthiness of the current study, the investigators employed two primary strategies to meet the criteria of a methodologically rigorous qualitative study. First, the leading researcher in the study used both hand coding and software systems to code the data independently during the initial stage of data analysis. After the initial stage, the leading researcher continued to employ the assistance of qualitative analysis software (NVivo) and compare notes in both methods on themes. Second, to prevent biased interpretation of the data, the researcher reflected regularly through the personal memos the potential influence of cultural backgrounds and

preferences, perception of the research topic and process as well as personal feeling and thoughts on the data collection and analysis process. The researcher sought consultation with faculty members and presented initial findings at a faculty’s research team and requested feedback. The researcher also engaged in regular discussions in an off-campus research clinic about the research methods and ways to prevent biases.

CHAPTER FOUR