This article offers a two-fold contribution. On the one hand, it includes a review of the key junctions in the research landscape related to migrant children and youth by bringing together youth studies, migration studies and a child-centered paradigm with the focus on the meso-level and the concept of belonging. On the other hand, by seeing belonging as a valuable analytical framework for the integration of approaches at the tripartite analysis favoring the meso-level, the paper encourages studies to dynamically overcome the dichotomy, incompleteness and a static nature of the research conducted separately on either macro or micro levels.
Bullying has long-lasting consequences for mental and physical health as well as relationships, but little is known about how bullying experiences at school-age impact social behaviors–and particularly social attachment–in adulthood. This qualitative study investigates the relationship between experiencing school bullying and social attachment patterns in early adulthood. The analysis comprises a retrospective study of young adults in Poland (n = 20) who were interviewed to investigate possible connections between their peer bullying experiences and current social lives. The findings reveal three major social attachment patterns in adulthood: social cushioning, anxious withdrawal, and desperate friendship-seeking. In the first pattern, a person acquires emotional and social security through attachment to a small peer circle. In the second, a young adult prefers solitude or limited social contact to avoid further negative experiences. In the third, a person seeks to be socially recovered and approved despite multiple failures and rejections.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.