Mothers’ difficulties and expectations for intervention of bullying among young children in South Korea

Abstract

This study investigated the difficulties of mothers in coping with the bullying of their children and their expectations concerning bullying intervention for young children in South Korea. Twenty mothers with young children were interviewed. Interviews were transcribed in Korean. Nvivo 12 software was used to analyze the data. Four themes emerged: “mothers’ coping strategies”, “problems of interventions”, “expectations of interventions”, and “developmentally appropriate interventions for young children”. Each theme was divided into categories and further into subcategories. Mothers used diverse strategies to intervene when their children were bullied and showed dissatisfaction with the current intervention system. Their expectations for interventions for young children were explained in terms of familial, school, and local/governmental levels. These results emphasized that intervention policies for bullying among young children should be urgently established, and intervention programs need to consider the developmental characteristics of young children.