Teachers' and pupils' definitions of bullying.

BACKGROUND: Comparison of teachers' and pupils' definitions of bullying is important for considering the implications for reports of its incidence in schools, for the study of developmental trends in children's and adolescents' perceptions of the phenomenon and for evaluating the effectiveness of interventions designed to combat bullying. AIMS: To investigate the effects of gender, teacher/pupil status and, for pupils, bullied/non-bullied (target/non-target) status and age on the definition of bullying. SAMPLES: Teachers (N=225: 158 women, 67 men) and pupils (N=1,820: 466 boys, 460 girls were 11-12 years old, year 7, and 415 boys, 479 girls were 13-14 years, year 9) in 51 UK secondary schools participated in a questionnaire survey. A total of 557 of the pupils (117 girls and 117 boys aged 11-12 years, and 197 girls and 126 boys aged 13-14 years) reported that they had been bullied at some time in their present school. METHODS: Written questionnaire responses to the question, 'Say what you think bullying is' have been content analysed to derive two sets of categories, one of bullying behaviour and the other of effects of bullying on the target. RESULTS: Regarding both bullying behaviour and the effects of bullying on the target, teachers - by comparison with pupils - have been found to express more comprehensive ideas in their definitions. Specifically, pupils compared with teachers are more likely to restrict their definitions to direct bullying (verbal and/or physical abuse) and are less likely to refer to social exclusion, a power imbalance in the bully's favour and the bully's intention to cause the target hurt or harm and to feel threatened. Analysis of definitions on the bases of sex, pupil age and target/non-target status show that: targets are more likely than non-targets are to refer to the bully's physically and verbally abusive behaviour, and for Year 7 compared with Year 9 pupils, to suggest that bullies socially exclude targets; girls are more likely than boys are to mention verbal abuse and the effects on the target of 'Feels hurt/harm', but boys are more likely than girls are to construe bullying as involving repetition; older pupils are more likely than younger ones are to refer to a power imbalance in the bully's favour but, for bully targets, younger ones compared with older ones are more likely to invoke the idea of social exclusion in their definitions. CONCLUSIONS: The most important implication of the findings of this study that there are important differences between teachers' and pupils' definitions of bullying is that teachers need to listen carefully to what pupils have to say about bullying and work with and help them to develop their conceptions of the phenomenon. Some teachers, too, need to develop their conceptions of bullying

IMMUNOLOGICAL DETECTION OF FUNGAL CONTAMINATION IN FOODS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ANTIGENS (IMMUNOASSAY, ELISA)

A double-sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for the detection of molds (Alternaria alternata, Geotrichum candidum and Rhizopus stolonifer) in food products, including tomato puree, applesauce, apricot nectar, peach puree, bread and cottage cheese. Detection limits for G. candidum, R. stolonifer and A. alternata were 100, 1000, and 100 ng dried mold/g of sample, respectively. Cross reactivity among the three species was less than 10%. Specificity of the ELISA was studied using twenty-eight other strains or isolates of molds and yeasts. Of the strains studied, the antiserum to A. alternata cross reacted strongly with A. cucumerina, Epicoccum sp. and Leptosphaerulina briosiana, and weakly with several other strains; the antiserum to R. stolonifer only cross reacted with Mucor sp. which is in the same family (Mucoraceae) as Rhizopus; while the antiserum to G. candidum was very specific and essentially only reacted with G. candidum. Five isolates of G. candidum other than the one (ATCC 7115) that was used to induce antibody were studied. All of them reacted positively but at different degrees with the antisera. The ELISA was able to detect both biologically viable and non-viable molds. Positive relationships between ELISA absorbances and the amount of mold added to food samples were observed in every case. The food components in general did not cross react with fungal antigens; therefore, low background was observed. But their presence did affect the efficiency of the antigen-antibody reaction. The effect was lower for fruit products but higher for bread and cottage cheese samples. For the latter, the dilution factor of the samples was very important in determining the efficiency of the assay, since higher dilution rates usually gave more satisfactory results. Effects of modification in the ELISA procedure were studied to eliminate the effects due to foods, but none of them seemed advantageous. A comparison was made between ELISA and Howard mold count (HMC). Closely related results were obtained from the two methods. While HMC detected mold in general, ELISA was more specific. The antigenic components of the molds were studied. High molecular weight, phosphate buffered saline (PBS)-extractable and heat stable antigens were isolated by gel filtration. Further analysis suggested that they were polysaccharides in nature with glucose as the major sugar residue