Bullying

What is Bullying

Popular conceptualizations of bullying are often misleading. For example, common myths suggest that any use of aggression constitutes bullying, that bullies are either social isolates or members of deviant peer groups, and that bullying only exists within highly individualistic, competitive cultures. A primary goal of this entry is to debunk these and other myths.

First, bullying cannot be defined by a specific group of behaviors such as teasing, threatening, and manipulating social relationships, nor does simply enacting these behaviors make one a bully. To the contrary, bullying is distinct from other, more general categories of aggression in that it is characterized by (a) repetition over time, (b) an imbalance of physical and/or psychological power between the bully and victim, and (c) an intention [Page 190]to harm the victim. Bullying therefore involves a behavioral interaction and over time, a relationship in which bullies repeatedly inflict harm on specific, lower-power victims.

Second, bullying does not occur in isolation. To the contrary, observational studies show that peers are present in 85 percent of bullying episodes and that peers often play a supporting role in reinforcing some bullies for aggressing against some, but not all, victims. For example, research by David Perry and colleagues shows that classmates' views of bullies depend on who they victimize. Only some victimization is viewed negatively, while aggression against other children is ignored, tolerated, or—at worst—rewarded. For bullies, such support means that targeted victimization may involve only minimal costs and in some cases, substantial benefits in the form of social support and elevated peer status. Ironically, aggressive victims may also accrue some benefit from the bully-victim relationship. Social dominance theory and research by Anthony Pellegrini and colleagues suggests that victims of bullying may themselves target weaker peers to gain status and notoriety among peers. Such findings suggest that status-related contests may underlie cycles of aggression among bullies and victims alike.

Third, bullying is not unique to some cultures. To the contrary, international research shows that bullying is a common and persistent problem around the world, with Japan, Norway, the United States, and the United Kingdom showing no significant differences in the frequency of bullying across urban, suburban, and rural settings. Research also shows that the bullying problem develops according to a similar timeline in different parts of the world, most likely driven by age-related patterns of peer interaction and school organization. Specifically, the bullying problem first emerges in elementary school and then becomes particularly acute, at least in terms of frequency and severity, in middle school or junior high.

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