Bullying, School

The Concept of School Bullying and Prevalence of Bullying/Victim Problems

A student is being bullied or victimized when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other students. Children play different roles in bullying episodes: some youth bully peers and some are bullied by peers; some children are bullies in some bullying episodes and victims in other episodes; some are reinforcers (who encourage the bully or laugh at the victim), defenders (who help the victim), and bystanders (who stay out of things). School bullying can happen in schools and on the way to and from home (Olweus, 1993; Smith & Brain, 2000; Smith et al., 1999).

School bullying, as a behavior or phenomenon, is prevalent among schoolchildren and adolescents, and it is widespread in different nations and cultures (Smith et al., 1999). For example, in a large-scale survey of approximately 130,000 primary and junior high students from all over Norway, some 15% of the students were involved in bully/victim problems with some regularity—either as bullies or victims (Olweus, 1993). In another large-scale survey comprising more than 6,700 primary and secondary students in Britain, 27% of primary school students reported being bullies “sometimes” or more frequently, and this included 10% bullied “once a week” or more frequently. For secondary schools, the figures were 10% and 4% respectively (Smith et al., 1999).

School Bullying: The Vicious Circle

Getting involved in bullying can be a negative developmental outcome of adverse life circumstances. In turn, bullying can be a risk factor for some maladaptive developmental outcomes. Cautiousness, sensitivity, physical weakness, internalizing and externalizing behaviors, low self-esteem, overprotective parenting, and peer rejection contribute to make children victims of bullying. Impulsivity, lack of parental warmth and/or parental monitoring, inconsistency of parental discipline, and exposure to adult aggression and conflict (including marital difficulties) are found to put children at risk to be bullies (Hodges & Perry, 1999; Olweus, 1993; Smith et al., 1999). From this perspective, bullying can be a negative or maladaptive developmental outcome.

Bullying can be pernicious and highly damaging in its effects by causing various salient short-term and long-term negative developmental outcomes. For example, low self-esteem, depression, and suicidal behaviors are consistently reported to result from being bullied by peers (Hodges & Perry, 1999; Olweus, 1993; Smith & Brain, 2000; Smith et al., 1999). Bullying, examined from this perspective, can be regarded as a negative life circumstance that can cause negative developmental outcomes.

In short, bullying, as a negative developmental outcome because of adverse life circumstances or as an adversity that can lead to maladaptive developmental outcomes, may coexist in an ongoing process and form a vicious circle in which each reinforces the other. The existence of the vicious circle helps to explain the strong temporal stability of school bullying. Simply, some negative life environments can lead children to get involved in bullying as bullies or victims or both, and getting involved in bullying can cause other negative developmental outcomes. In turn, some negative life circumstances that lead to bullying or being bullied are also found to be outcomes of getting involved in bullying. For example, peer rejection can cause children to be victims of bullying and can be a result of being bullied (Hodges & Perry, 1999).

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