INONU UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF EDUCATION December 2010/ Volume. 11, Issue. 3, pp.125-142 Refereed Paper ISSN: 1300–2899 © 2010 Inonu University Faculty of Education The Analysis of the Relationship between Separation- Individuation and School Bullying in Adolescents Mehmet GÜVEN Gazi University, Faculty of Vocational Education Sevda ASLAN Kırıkkale University, Faculty of Education Abstract In this study, it is aimed to determine the relationship between separation-individuation and bullying and analyse the separation-individuation and bullying levels in high school students according to some variables. 416 students from three high school students in Ankara participated in this study. High School Form of the Separation-Individuation Scale of Adolescence, Student Relationships Attitude Scale (SRAS) and Personal Data Form were used in this study. T-test, one way anova, and Pearson Correlation Coefficient were used in the analysis of the data. Some important differences in subscales such as separation anxiety, nurturance seeking, peer enmeshment, teacher enmeshment, healthy separation, and bullying personality were found in favour of girls according to gender. Some important differences in subscales such as separation anxiety, teacher enmeshment, rejection expectancy, healthy separation, bullying personality and self-confidence were found according to class levels. It was found that there are meaningful relationships between the subscales of bullying personality and avoidance from bullying and the subscales of High School Form of the Separation- Individuation Scale of Adolescence Keywords: Adolescent, separation-individuation, school bullying SUMMARY There are changes in the perception of adolescent himself and the world as well as other people’s perception of the child basing on the biological, physiological and cognitive changes in the adolescence period. Especially, the changes in the cognitive structure together with the maturity of cognitive skills cause the changes in the perception and understanding of the outer world. These changes transform the child in this adolescence period into a young adult at the end of the period (Erdem and Akman, 1997). It is expected that adolescents start separation-individuation from their parents, that is, they are expected to complete the second separation-individuation period during the adolescence period in which an individual having an identity sense starts preparing to achieve his/her responsibilities towards the public (Blos, 1962: Akt. Quintana and Lapsley, 1990; Blos, 1989). Therefore, in this period, it is important for an adolescent to win recognition in terms of the development in his/her personal relationships (Yılmaz, 2007). Friends, groups etc. dominate the functions of the superego for a long time