This thesis is about the current problem of some students being excluded from their age group by their peers and how it became part of the teen culture. Interviews were conducted to summarize the realities of this act of excluding peers from their gro...
This thesis is about the current problem of some students being excluded from their age group by their peers and how it became part of the teen culture. Interviews were conducted to summarize the realities of this act of excluding peers from their group and to view the organization and culture of the teen peer groups.
The realities of this act of excluding peers were analyzed in five areas. The different treatment to the victims, how it starts, persists, and ends, and the effects or consequences were analyzed.
There are many ways of excluding a peer from a group. (The excluded peer will be called the victim from now on.) Some of the treatments toward the victim are ignoring that person, verbal abuse, violence and offensive actions, and constantly irritating that person. The cause of exclusion from their peer groups vary. However, two major reasons are that victims violate the rules of the group that is followed by all others, and that the victim has an unique character or personality. Financial status of the family, appearance, and a certain mistake made by the victim might be reasons for exclusion. This tells us that there is conflict among the members of the peer groups and this is shown through the at of exclusion. The negative treatments to the victim does not end but worsens as time passes because of the victim's resistance to the group and their treatment and when a third party like the authorities of parents get involved.
This exclusion among peers effects the individual victim as well as th classroom atmosphere. The victims most of the time refuse to attend school or want to transfer to another school. They will lose self-esteem and self-confidence and grades at school might significantly drop or rise. In more serious cases, they have to receive psychiatric help or commit suicide. While victims lose self-worth, the offenders and those who side with the offenders do not stop the act even though they know it is wrong. The rest of the group side with the offenders because they are afraid to become victims.
It was previously mentioned that there exists a power conflict among the members of the teen peer groups and excluding the victim is a way of expressing that conflict. This study revealed that there is a certain organization of peer groups in school and the classrooms, the power conflict influenced the exclusion, and that break up among classmates is usually related to the peer group and the exclusions.
Teen peer groups and their process of formation is in many ways different from adult social groups. However, they are similar in that power struggle is evident and that superiority and inferiority are determined by the result of this power struggle. The "jjang" is the one with the power in the teen peer groups. Before the "jjang" was determined by good grades in school; however, it has shifted to factors like leadership and one's abilities in sports and computer. Most of the time, the person who has the best abilities win in the power struggle among their peers and become the "jjang" of the peer group. Other support that leader. The leader through excluding any individual he/she dislikes and making others dislike that individual too is expressing his/her superiority and strength, and also maintains and strengthens the power one has.
As a result, the current problem of exclusion from peer group is a form of an individual or a group with more power psychologically and physically oppressing the one with less power repetitively. The point is that repetitive oppression comes from the imbalance of power. This is a systematic abuse of power and control in teen peer group in schools and classrooms.
Through the case studies, we have found that many teenagers and greatly suffer from this exclusion among peers. Further studies should focus on the detailed account of the structure of the same-age peer groups and the power conflicts inside those groups instead of determining the number of victims and finding out who the victims and the offenders are.