School children's experience of being bullied--and how they envisage their dream day.

Bullying may have a number of negative health impacts on children. Previous studies have mainly explored negative health consequences related to being bullied. A different approach is to explore how these phenomena are related to the school child's quality of life (QOL). The role of the school nurse is to promote health and prevent sickness, and school nurses therefore need knowledge of what promotes or threatens QOL in children. No previous research has explored how bullied children envisage their dream day or a day with good QOL. There is a need for more qualitative research on how school children experience being bullied and the kind of help they need from their school, and school nurse, to realize their dream day. The aim of this study was to explore how school children experience bullying in their everyday lives, what constitutes their dream day and what kind of help they need. An explorative qualitative design was chosen, and data were collected through focus group interviews. Data collection was conducted throughout 2007 and during the spring of 2008. The sample consisted of 17 school children, aged 12-13 years, in four different groups. An interview guide was used, and the group responses were audio-taped, transcribed and coded into themes. The data were analysed according to Kvale's three contexts of interpretation within a phenomenological and hermeneutic framework. Four main themes were identified: teasing and fighting, emotional reactions to being left alone or excluded, the need for friends to achieve the dream day and stopping the bullying immediately. The participants said that being bullied made them feel helpless, lonely and excluded. They wanted the bullying to be recognized, assistance from the school staff to stop the bullying, and to be included by their peers.