Abstract
This study aimed to clarify the types of friend groups formed by elementary and junior high school students, and to investigate students' awareness of belonging to a group. For this purpose, an instrument was developed for assessing relationships between groups of friends, and its reliability and validity were confirmed. Student groups were categorized according to their group types. Reasons for belonging to a group and orientation, correlations between direct victimization such as mockery, teasing, and isolation, as well as anxiety about being alone were investigated. Results of cluster analysis extracted the following four groups; an ambivalent type group, a positive dominant type group, a negative dominant type group, and a passive type group. It was indicated that victimization through bullying occurred in the negative dominant and ambivalent groups. Moreover, the followings factors were suggested as reasons for remaining in a group, despite being victimized. In the negative dominant type group, there was a high tendency toward “exclusive-group orientation,” “direct victims of bullying,” and “anxiety and solitude,” whereas in the ambivalent group, there was a high tendency toward “avoidance of becoming an outcast” and “fixed-group orientation.”
