Israeli Arab Minority Students’ Help Seeking for Bullying From School Counselors

Abstract

Minority students are less likely to seek help to deal with bullying at school than their majority counterparts. Nonetheless, very little is known about the factors that influence their willingness to seek help, or the role of school counselors as potential help providers. Thus, in the present study we examined Israeli Arab minority high school students’ help seeking from school counselors for coping with verbal, physical, and social bullying. A national representative sample of 730 high school students participated in the study. Our findings revealed that the vast majority of students did not seek help at all. Students who sought help, in comparison with those who did not, reported more positive relationships with their school counselors, and noted that their counselors were more available for them. Students who experienced higher levels of victimization were more willing to seek help than those who experienced lower levels. Implications for help seeking and the role of counselors in schools are discussed.