Bullying of Students with Disabilities in Physical Education: A bibliometric analysis (1988 to 2013)

Abstract

The purpose of the bibliometric study was to determine the quantity and quality of research on bullying of students with disabilities in physical education through a trend analysis. Using this research method, the initial search related to the key terms of- “bullying” and “physical education” which resulted in 3,146 articles in four databases (EBSCOhost, ProQuest, Scopus, and Science Direct ) from 1988 to 2013. Of the 3,146 articles , 223 (14%) articles were related to bullying students with disabilities in physical education. Eight articles met the selection criteria to further evaluate the levels of quality and evidence using Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy (SORT, 2004). Based on the SORT, eight articles (4%) out of 223 articles were rated low because of the quality of study and level of evidences. In addition, seven (88%) were rated as having a low quality of the research design and five (63%) with a low level of evidence to support the finding for 3 related to SORT. It was concluded that there is little research in the literature (1988-2013) and of the 8 used questionnaires or descriptive research designs, instead of using a highly evidence-based research design