The Resilience Factor: Examining its Potential to Alleviate Shame and Guilt in School Bullying

Abstract

School violence, in particular bullying by peers, has become a problem on the public agenda. In the context of bullying, children exposed report high levels of shame and guilt which increase victimization since involves a humiliating experience associated with the lack of acceptance by the peer group and can negatively affect mental health. Both emotions have been previously studied in peer violence context. Now we aim to examine resilience as a potential factor to alleviate shame and guilt in school bullying. We conducted a study to test if resilience mediates the feeling of shame and guilt effect of being exposed to bullying; that is, if resilience entails protective behaviors that favour the dissipation of the risk of feeling shame and guilt when exposed to direct violence in school. First, we adapted to Mexican Spanish the research instrument Short Version of the State Shame and Guilt Scale (SSGS-8, Cavalera et al., 2017)—; then we conducted a quantitative, explanatory, cross-sectional approach study; both were carried out in two different non-urban high schools near the city of Monterrey, Mexico, randomizing groups. We found through a moderated mediation analysis that resilience is a key piece to transform shame and practically alleviate negative school violence consequences the indirect effect of resilience on the relationship between direct violence in school and shame was moderated by gender, better for boys than for girls. As its presence restrain shame in those who have been exposed to direct violence in school, it is important to strengthen resilience in adolescents. Promoting the development of shame resilience in adolescents is crucial to prevent them from questioning whether something is wrong with them when exposed to violence. We must continue making efforts to eradicate violence in schools through prevention programs and public policies.