Bullying

School bullying is a phenomenon that affects a large population of students in many countries. In a 2001 study of over 15,686 U.S. students enrolled in public and private schools, T. R. Nansel and colleagues found that 29.9 percent of the students in Grades 6 through 10 reported moderate to frequent involvement in bullying at school. The 2001 National Crime Victimization Survey indicated that 14 percent of American children ages twelve through eighteen in public and private schools had been bullied in the last six months. Bullying is often defined as a form of aggression that occurs between individuals and groups of students, and it differs from normal student conflict because it is repetitive and involves a social or physical power imbalance. Bullying can be verbal (e.g., name-calling), physical (e.g., shoving), social (e.g., rumor spreading), and electronic (e.g., name-calling through text messaging).

Often using a social-ecological approach to understanding, researchers have identified features of individuals and aspects of the family, peer group, school, and community environment that contribute to or deter bullying. School bullying is a problem that needs to be addressed through targeted prevention efforts that take into account both risk and protective factors.

Research has documented the fact that children experience bullying differently, in terms of both behavioral patterns and psychosocial adjustment. Differences among children involved in bullying have been conceptualized into categorization of four groups: bullies, bully-victims (who are victimized and also bully others), victims (who do not report bullying others), and nonaggressive children. The discrimination between bully and bully-victim groups has aroused particular interest because these subgroups appear to display different patterns of aggression. Bullies exhibit a more goal-oriented aggression, entailing more control and planning. In contrast, the bully-victims tend to display a more impulsive aggression, manifesting poor regulation of affect and behavior, which is perceived as particularly aversive by their peers. Bully-victims as a group report attention deficits, hyperactivity, and academic and conduct problems in the classroom and have higher depression and anxiety.