Journal of Educational, Health and Community Psychology
Vol 9, No 2, 2020 E-ISSN 2460-8467
Widiharto,
Suminar,
Hendriani.
117
Identification of Victims Response to Bullying Cases:
A Study of Javanese Students
Chr. Argo Widiharto
Bimbingan dan Konseling Department, Universitas PGRI Semarang
Doctoral Student, Faculty of Psychology, Airlangga University
argowidiharto@upgris.ac.id
Dewi Retno Suminar
Faculty of Psychology, Airlangga University
dewi.suminar@psikologi.unair.ac.id
Wiwin Hendriani
Faculty of Psychology, Airlangga University
wiwin.hendriani@psikologi.unair.ac.id
Abstract
Bullying is an incident that frequently involves a perpetrator, bystander, and victim. However,
victims’ responses to stop bullying, does not always achieve the expected outcome. This is partly
because the responses vary significantly, and victims does not explicitly show their intention. The
purpose of this research is to identify the types of bullying victims’ responses and identify which
among them should be implemented. The sample are Javanese 4
th
to 6
th
-grade elementary school
students who have witnessed bullying. The total sample of 290 students were taken from the
elementary schools in Semarang, Yogya, Wonosobo, Pemalang, and Tegal. The dominant victim
response is helplessness and there is no difference between cities and classes.
Keywords: Identification of responses, victims of bullying, victim responses, Javanese student
Received 30 September 2019/Accepted 15 May 2020 ©JEHCP All rights reserved
Introduction
Bullying problems have long been a concern in theeducation field, both in terms of its effect
on perpetrators and victims (Sittichai & Smith, 2015). Bullying is defined as an unpleasant
behavior committed by a person or group of people to a weaker party – be it a person or a
group–who has no ability to retaliate to physically nor psychological harassment (Olweus,
1996; Wolke, Woods, Stanford, & Schulz, 2001; Smith, Cowie, Olafsson, & Liefooghe, 2002;
Cheng, Chen, Ho, & Cheng, 2011). For it to be considered bullying, the so-called unpleasant
behavior must be repetitive and harm the victim. Similarly, Rigby (2002) stated that bullying
is a behavior that involves the desire or act of hurting others repetitively, which may utilize