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I Didn't Even Know You Cared About That Stuff'': Youths' Perceptions of Health Care Provider Roles in Addressing Bullying
I Didn't Even Know You Cared About That Stuff'': Youths' Perceptions of Health Care Provider Roles in Addressing Bullying
ABSTRACT role that advanced practice nurses and physicians play in ad-
Introduction: Youth bullying is a critical public health prob- dressing bullying.
lem, with those exposed to bullying at risk for development Methods: A qualitative descriptive approach was used; focus
of serious sequelae lasting into adulthood. The purpose of groups were used to generate study data. Twenty-four ado-
this study was to explore youths’ perceptions regarding the lescents participated in focus groups centered on exploring
health care providers’ roles in addressing bullying.
Results: Three themes emerged through qualitative analysis:
(a) Not sure that’s part of their job, (b) That’s way too per-
Judith A. Vessey, Lelia Holden Carroll Professor in Nursing,
Boston College, William F. Connell School of Nursing, Chestnut sonal, and (c) They couldn’t help anyway. Participants
Hill, MA; and Nurse Scientist, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, described a very limited role for health care providers in ad-
MA. dressing bullying.
Discussion: Youths recognized a narrow role for health care
Rachel L. DiFazio, Nurse Scientist, Boston Children’s Hospital,
providers in addressing bullying, characterizing bullying as a
and Instructor, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
school- or-community-related issue rather than one influ-
Tania D. Strout, Director of Research, Department of Emergency encing health. J Pediatr Health Care. (2017) 31, 536-545.
Medicine, Maine Medical Center, and Associate Professor of
Emergency Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine,
Portland, ME. KEY WORDS
Conflicts of interest: None to report. Advanced practice nurses, adolescent–provider communica-
tion, focus groups, health screening, nurse practitioners,
Correspondence: Judith A. Vessey, PhD, MBA, RN, FAAN, Boston youth bullying
College, William F. Connell School of Nursing, 140 Commonwealth
Ave, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467; e-mail: [email protected].
Youth bullying is a critical public health problem
0891-5245/$36.00 affecting approximately 20% to 28% of all middle school
Copyright Q 2017 by the National Association of Pediatric youths each year (Centers for Disease Control and
Nurse Practitioners. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights Prevention & U.S. Department of Education, 2014).
reserved. Youth bullying is defined as ‘‘.any unwanted aggres-
Published online March 6, 2017. sive behavior(s) by another youth or group of youths
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pedhc.2017.01.004 who are not siblings or current dating partners that
additional information on topic areas that emerged focus groups were held until saturation was reached
from the initial responses to the open-ended ques- and no new categories emerged from the data.
tions. After participants had an opportunity to offer
their personal views, the moderator shifted to a Analytic Procedures
more directive style of questioning by asking partic- Descriptive statistics were used to describe the char-
ipants what they thought about specific topics. acteristics of the study population. For the qualitative
Congruent with focus group methodology, no push analysis, focus group audiotapes were transcribed
toward ensuring conformity or consensus was verbatim at the conclusion of each session by a pro-
made, because the aim was to derive as comprehen- fessional Collaborate Institutional Training Initiative-
sive a picture of the participants’ views as possible certified transcriptionist. The accuracy of the tran-
and to ensure that there was opportunity for contrary scription was ensured by having the moderator and
opinions to arise (Krueger & Casey, 2009). As we will recorder listen to the tape and compare it with the
describe, data analysis began as soon as the first transcript text. The transcripts were entered into Hy-
focus group transcript was available, and additional per-RESEARCH 3.03 (Researchware, Inc., 2011), a