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InterventionCentral.org: What Teachers Can Do

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InterventionCentral.org: What Teachers Can Do

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Preventing Classroom Bullying: What teachers Can Do. Learn how to reduce bullying in schools by focusing on the four elements that sustain it: bullies, victims, bystanders, and environment.

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Thank you for visiting this page and for being an advocate against bullying!

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Thank you for visiting this page and for being an advocate against bullying!

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Statistics on bullying, types of bullying, and the effects of bullying:

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NoBullying - Bullying & CyberBullying Resources

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Bullying in the USA has been a big problem for a long time now. Though people of all ages can be bullied it most often happens to school aged children. Over the years the problem has grown in elementary, middle and high schools throughout America. Parents and school officials in most states have come together to try and stop bullying, with varied results.

Facts And Statistics

Within U.S. schools, for every four kids enrolled, one is bullied regularly. Surveys have determined that the age group dealing with the most cases of bullying is students enrolled in sixth grade straight through tenth grade. Statistics show that 30% of bullies have been bullied by other students. Bullying occurs both at school and away from school in the cases of many children. Some 77% of students have been bullied verbally and even mentally. Reportedly, 14% of those students end up having a very severe negative reaction to bullying and abuse from their classmates. This causes problems such as declining grades, more anxiety and less desire to be around friends and have a social life.

In a study conducted across U.S. schools for every five students enrolled one admits to having bullied their classmates. Close to 50% of kids who are bullied at school are bullied while they are using the restroom. On average, 85% of students who are being bullied at school do not receive help from their teachers and other school staff members.

As far back as 2010, of every student enrolled in a U.S. school from kindergarten to twelfth grade one in seven of them have been bullied by a classmate. In a 2010 study 61% of the participants reported that school bullying was driving kids to shoot other kids. The study also found that for every 20 kids enrolled in school one kid has seen a classmate carrying a gun in school.It also found that 23% of high school freshmen take a gun to school with them. Of all the incidents involving school shootings, 75% of them are reportedly caused, at least in part, by bullying. The shooter is intent on getting revenge on the classmates who have been bullying them.

Many times bullying of school aged children begins because a child's home life is abusive in some way. Of the students who experience an abusive home life, 54% of them turn to bullying their classmates. Elementary school children are often bullied on the playground and teachers reportedly rarely intervene.

Physical conditions such as being overweight make it more likely kids will be bullied. In fact, statistics show that any kid grossly overweight is 63% more likely to be bullied by their classmates. Bullying is also a problem for kids who have medical conditions that affect the way they appear to others, such as muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy, as well as for kids who suffer from ADHD or a learning disability. Even among today's adult generation, 83% of them were bullied growing up because they had a problem with stuttering.

The most common type of bullying among school aged children is verbal. Verbal and mentally bullying include perpetuating runors about a classmate and using derogatory terms and/or obscenities. These derogatory terms are often targeting children according to their gender, race, religion, culture and sexual orientation. A small percentage of school aged children are bullied because they have yet to become sexually active. A larger percentage of U.S. students have been bullied for being part of the LGBT community, 86% to be exact.

Bullying also includes sexual harassment of one student by another. The American Association of University Women released a report stating that of all the students enrolled in U.S. schools, 76% of girls as well as 85% of boys have experienced sexual harassment at school. In only 18% of these cases the sexual harassment was performed by a teacher or other adult; the remaining 82% was performed by students against their classmates.

While verbal abuse is the most common, cyber bullying has become a close second. In 2010 studies showed that roughly half of the high school students in the country have been a victim of cyber bullying. Students often take and post embarrassing pictures of their classmates on the Internet, and this counts as cyber bullying. While cyber bullying was originally perpetuated mainly by boys, many school aged girls have begun to engage in cyber bullying as well.

Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have made it easy for kids to cyber bully their classmates. Roughly 35% of high school students have received threats from classmates via social media sites and the Internet in general. Of all the teenage students in the U.S. half of them have reportedly used the Internet to say something nasty about a classmate.

Cyber bullying has become more popular as it has become easier thanks to so many students carrying mobile phones these days. Smart phones have the ability to give kids access to their social media pages while they are at school and this facilitates the bullying.

Another type of bullying comes in the form of social emotional bullying. This involves groups of kids excluding other kids from their activities and conversations in an attempt to make them feel uncomfortable and insecure about themselves, something many kids struggle with already. This is the type of bullying that girls use much more often than boys do.

Physical bullying is also something that often takes place between school aged children. This includes striking a classmate, punching, kicking and shoving them as well as tripping them and spitting at them or on them.

Bullying in the USA often leads to suicidal tendencies in school aged victims. In fact, a study performed by Yale University determined that kids who are bullied consider suicide more than kids who are not bullied ever do. When elementary school children are bullies they often miss more school than kids who aren't and they are more likely to drop out of school as well. As they become older, kids who were bullies in elementary school often end up committing acts of vandalism, truancy, theft and fighting. Many of these kids end up being arrested by the time they are in their early 20s. A study that included over 500 school aged children showed that kids who behave aggressively by the time they are eight years old are likely to become violent criminals by the time they are 30 years old.

In December of 2011 a Staten Island teenager killed herself after being bullied by her female peers at school. After her romance with a boy in her school went wrong, she became the target of a female bully at the school. The bullying continued as she was lying on her death bed in a local hospital and her peers were badgering and badmouthing her on Facebook. Upon her death the police did not want to rule that the cause of the death was bullying because they reportedly did not have not enough proof that it was.

Programs For Anti-Bullying In USA

Many schools have organized their own programs to stop bullying in America. While some schools embrace their programs more than others these programs, in general, are becoming increasingly popular. Of all the bullying in USA programs there is a single program that was designed based on an unofficial model of what an anti-bullying plan should include. Rural junior high schools in South Carolina now include intervention programs that are applied on both an individual and a group basis. Within an individual classroom or school intervention, bullying is prevented as much as possible. Some of these interventions even cover entire communities within South Carolina.

There have been campaigns online that have been created to address the issue of cyber bullying. As part of one of these campaigns a father was interviewed about his son having committed suicide as a result of being bullied. Prior to this interview the grieving father created a website that addressed anti-bullying and dedicated it to his son's memory. The website was called Kindness Above Malice and in the website content the grieving father wrote that he was devoting the remainder of his life to help other parents avoid suffering the devastating loss that he and his wife suffered through the death of their son. Just shy of a year after his son died, the grieving father was so overcome that he also committed suicide.

Discouraging Bullying In The USA Schools

Experts on the subject of school bullies state that their peers often reinforce bullying of others, either in a passive or non-passive way. One Los Angeles elementary school has gone so far as to send not only bullies, but those students who witness it and do nothing, to mediation sessions held after school day hours. Students are then educated on why bullying is wrong and on what they can do to prevent kids from bullying other kids in schools across the United States of America.

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Bullying In The USA - NoBullying - Bullying & CyberBullying Resources

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Bullying in the USA has been a big problem for a long time now. Though people of all ages can be bullied it most often happens to school aged children. Over the years the problem has grown in elementary, middle and high schools throughout America.

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Great Variety of Teacher Resources and Information!!! Click the image below, then click "view original" in the top right corner.

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Bullying is much more than just teasing because it is much more destructive.

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Consider showing this video to your students:
"It's up to you"
Click the image below, then click "view original" in the top right corner if you wish to go to the YouTube source for the video.

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Anti-Bullying Awareness - Indirect, Cyber Bullying, Alienated - Lesson - School

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The statistics on bullying and suicide are alarming:

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There is a strong link between bullying and suicide, as suggested by recent bullying-related suicides in the US and other countries. Parents, teachers, and students learn the dangers of bullying and help students who may be at risk of committing suicide.

In recent years, a series of bullying-related suicides in the US and across the globe have drawn attention to the connection between bullying and suicide. Though too many adults still see bullying as "just part of being a kid," it is a serious problem that leads to many negative effects for victims, including suicide. Many people may not realize that there is also a link between being a bully and committing suicide.
The statistics on bullying and suicide are alarming:

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. For every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts. Over 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have attempted it.

Bully victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims, according to studies by Yale University

A study in Britain found that at least half of suicides among young people are related to bullying

10 to 14 year old girls may be at even higher risk for suicide, according to the study above

According to statistics reported by ABC News, nearly 30 percent of students are either bullies or victims of bullying, and 160,000 kids stay home from school every day because of fear of bullying

Bully-related suicide can be connected to any type of bullying, including physical bullying, emotional bullying, cyberbullying, and sexting, or circulating suggestive or nude photos or messages about a person.

Some schools or regions have more serious problems with bullying and suicide related to bullying. This may be due to an excessive problem with bullying at the school. It could also be related to the tendency of students who are exposed to suicide to consider suicide themselves.
Some of the warning signs of suicide can include:

Showing signs of depression, like ongoing sadness, withdrawal from others, losing interest in favorite activities, or trouble sleeping or eating

Talking about or showing an interest in death or dying

Engaging in dangerous or harmful activities, including reckless behavior, substance abuse, or self injury

Giving away favorite possessions and saying goodbye to people

Saying or expressing that they can't handle things anymore

Making comments that things would be better without them

If a person is displaying these symptoms, talk to them about your concerns and get them help right away, such as from a counselor, doctor, or at the emergency room.

In some cases, it may not be obvious that a teen is thinking about suicide, such as when the suicide seems to be triggered by a particularly bad episode of bullying. In several cases where bullying victims killed themselves, bullies had told the teen that he or she should kill him or herself or that the world would be better without them. Others who hear these types of statements should be quick to stop them and explain to the victim that the bully is wrong.
Other ways to help people who may be considering suicide include:

Take all talk or threats of suicide seriously. Don't tell the person they are wrong or that they have a lot to live for. Instead, get them immediate medical help.

Keep weapons and medications away from anyone who is at risk for suicide. Get these items out of the house or at least securely locked up.

Parents should encourage their teens to talk about bullying that takes place. It may be embarrassing for kids to admit they are the victims of bullying, and most kids don't want to admit they have been involved in bullying. Tell victims that it's not their fault that they are being bullied and show them love and support. Get them professional help if the bullying is serious.

It is a good idea for parents to insist on being included in their children's friends on social networking sites so they can see if someone has posted mean messages about them online. Text messages may be more difficult to know about, so parents should try to keep open communications with their children about bullying.

Parents who see a serious bullying problem should talk to school authorities about it, and perhaps arrange a meeting with the bully's parents. More states are implementing laws against bullying, and recent lawsuits against schools and criminal charges against bullies show that there are legal avenues to take to deal with bullies. If school authorities don't help with an ongoing bullying problem, local police or attorneys may be able to.

People who are thinking about suicide should talk to someone right away or go to an emergency room. They can also call a free suicide hotline, such as 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Friends and relatives of suicide victims also need to find someone to talk to as they grieve, especially if they are suffering from depression or suicidal thoughts themselves.

Sources:

WebMD, Depression Guide, "Recognizing the Warning Signs of Suicide" [online]
Nemours, KidsHealth, "Helping Kids Deal with Bullies" [online]
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Suicide Prevention, "Youth Suicide" [online]
Yale University, Office of Public Affairs, "Bullying-Suicide Link Explored in New Study by Researchers at Yale" [online]
Matt Dickinson, The Independent, "Research finds bullying link to child suicides" [online]
Michael Inbar, MSNBC Today, "Sexting bullying cited in teen's suicide" [online]
Susan Donaldson James, ABC News, Health, "Teen Commits Suicide Due to Bullying: Parents Sue School for Son's Death" [online]
Erik Eckholm and Katie Zezima, The New York Times, "6 Teenagers Are Charged After Classmate's Suicide" [online]

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Bullying and Suicide - Bullying Statistics

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There is a strong link between bullying and suicide, as suggested by recent bullying-related suicides in the US and other countries. Parents, teachers, and students learn the dangers of bullying and help students who may be at risk of committing suicide.

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Everyone:
The Victim
The Bully
Bystanders
Family/Friends

Check out this resource to read more handout why bullying is a problem! Click the image below, then click "view original" in the top right corner:

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El acoso puede afectar a todos: a quienes son acosados, a quienes acosan y a quienes son testigos del acoso. El acoso está relacionado con muchas consecuencias negativas, como el impacto en la salud mental, el uso de sustancias y el suicidio. Es importante hablar con los niños para determinar si el acoso escolar (u otra situación) constituye una preocupación.

Niños que son acosados

Los niños que son acosados pueden experimentar problemas a nivel físico, escolar y de salud mental. Los niños que son acosados tienen más probabilidades de experimentar lo siguiente:

Depresión y ansiedad, aumento de sentimientos de tristeza y soledad, cambios en los patrones alimentarios y de sueño, y pérdida de interés en las actividades que solían disfrutar. Estos problemas pueden prolongarse hasta la edad adulta.

Molestias

Disminución de logros académicos (promedio académico [GPA, siglas en inglés] y puntajes en pruebas estandarizadas) y participación escolar. Mayor tendencia a faltar a clase o abandonar los estudios.

Un pequeño porcentaje de niños acosados suele responder a través de comportamientos extremadamente violentos. En 12 de cada 15 casos de los tiroteos en escuelas registrados durante 1990, los perpetradores tenían antecedentes de haber sido acosados.

Niños que acosan

Los niños que acosan a otros niños también pueden estar involucrados en situaciones violentas o peligrosas durante la adultez. Los niños que acosan son más propensos a los siguientes comportamientos:

Abuso de alcohol y otras drogas en la adolescencia y adultez

Participación en peleas, vandalismo y abandono escolar

Actividades sexuales precoces

Condenas por delitos y citaciones de tráfico en la adultez

Comportamiento abusivo hacia su pareja, cónyuge o hijos en la adultez

Espectadores

Los niños que son testigos de acoso escolar tienen más probabilidades de experimentar lo siguiente:

Aumento del consumo de tabaco, alcohol y otras drogas

Aumento de problemas de salud mental, como la depresión y la ansiedad

Ausentismo escolar

La relación entre el acoso escolar y el suicidio

A menudo, los informes periodísticos relacionan el acoso escolar con el suicidio. Sin embargo, la mayoría de los chicos que son acosados no piensan en suicidarse ni tienen comportamientos suicidas.

Si bien los niños que son acosados están en riesgo de cometer suicidio, el acoso escolar no es la única causa. Muchos problemas contribuyen con el riesgo de suicidio como la depresión, problemas en el hogar o una historia traumática. Además, hay grupos específicos que tienen mayor riesgo de suicidio, como nativos americanos y nativos de Alaska, estadounidenses de origen asiático y jóvenes lesbianas, homosexuales, bisexuales y transexuales. Este riesgo puede aumentar aún más cuando estos niños no son apoyados por sus padres, compañeros y escuelas. El acoso escolar pueden empeorar una situación insolidaria.

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Bullying can affect everyone-those who are bullied, those who bully, and those who witness bullying. Bullying is linked to many negative outcomes including impacts on mental health, substance use, and suicide. It is important to talk to kids to determine whether bullying-or something else-is a concern.

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Strategies for proactively addressing bullying

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Strategies for proactively addressing bullying

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Make sure students understand the definition of bullying.

Have a class meeting to discuss appropriate behaviors.

Teach the social skills for these appropriate behaviors.

Create a class/school definition of what is direct bullying. Have students focus on direct bullying, but also talk about indirect.

Treat others with respect

Help others feel welcomed and included

Talk to an adult if bullying is happening to others that you know or to yourself

Provide opportunities for positive, structured, social interaction.

Inform the class that you intend to keep it a safe and fun place to learn so you will intervene and impose consequences for bullying

Who should you communicate with to ensure these strategies are successful?

All students and adults with the school can help ensure anti-bullying step become successful!

Encourage administration to implement a whole-school program and resources.

Other teachers, students, parents, and school staff should all be communicated with to ensure these anti-bullying strategies are successful.

How will you know if the strategies are successful?

Continue monitoring students

Create a survey for students to anonymously answer and let you know from their perspective where and when bullying occurs

Progress monitor the bullying victims as well as the identified bullies

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Address the bully:

Assess the extent of the problem

Observe frequently, and also at unexpected times

Ask other staff to help you observe and keep track of the issue

Create a survey for students to anonymously answer and let you know from their perspective where and when bullying occurs

Give students names of trusted adults they can talk to if they are currently being bullied

Look at why as well as when the bullying is occurring

Contfront those engaged in bullying in a firm but appropriate manner

Immediately approach the bully after an incident,

Try to do so in private so not to encourage attention to the bully

Explain why that behavior did not follow class/school behavior rules

Keep the conversation focused on what was observed of the bully and avoid letting the victim be pulled further into the

Impose a consequence

Make sure it is appropriate and consistent!

Make a list of appropriate lesser consequences and appropriate greater consequences for isolated incidences verses chronic/more serious incidences

Avoid peer mediation, "just working it out"

Supervise closely during all times of the day, including travel times

Make a conference with the bully's parents and seek their help to make the bully behavior stop. Make it clear to the student that his/her behavior will be monitored closely and consequences will be enforced

Develop a reward chart for monitoring days when a behavior report is not conducted. Student can redeem a prize or privilege in exchange for ceasing bullying behaviors.

Make sure students, including bullies, know that they are valued. Bullies should know that the bullying behavior hurts and is disappointing to those who value them.

Continue to monitor student behaviors and progress.

Support the bullied student:

Demonstrate empathy and assurance that what happened was not their fault and that it will be dealt with appropriately

Make sure they are not punished or blamed for being bullied

Make sure they know that they are valued individuals

Do not tell them to fight back

Do not make the students apologize to each other immediately after the incident is intervened

Make sure the student feels supported long after the incident

Reach out to other staff for support and guidance for the student

Be an advocate to stop bullying

At school

And in the entire community

Bystanders:

Reinforce and encourage them to speak up and become advocates

Give them examples of how to appropriately intervene

Tell the person to stop

Get help from an adult

Make sure everyone know the important role they play in bullying

To read more about this, check out:
Intervene in a Bullying Incident by the National Education Association.
Click the image below, then click "view original" in the top right corner if you wish to go to the full article.

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What is it?

“Bullying is a specific type of aggression in which:

The behavior is intended to harm or disturb,

The behavior occurs repeatedly over time, and

There is an imbalance of power, with a more powerful person or group attacking a less powerful one.”

Could be direct or indirect

What does it look like?

Verbal Bullying

Name calling

Threats

Social Emotional-Psychological Bullying

Rumors

Shunning

Exclusion

Physical Bullying

Hitting

Online Bullying

Social media

Source:  Bullying Behaviors Among Us Youth:  Prevalence and Association with Psychosocial Adjustment, JAMA, April 25, 2001 – Vol. 285, No. 16
Click the image below, then click "view original" in the top right corner if you wish to go to the full article.

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Context Although violence among US youth is a current major concern, bullying is infrequently addressed and no national data on the prevalence of bullying are available.

Objectives To measure the prevalence of bullying behaviors among US youth and to determine the association of bullying and being bullied with indicators of psychosocial adjustment, including problem behavior, school adjustment, social/emotional adjustment, and parenting.

Design, Setting, and Participants Analysis of data from a representative sample of 15 686 students in grades 6 through 10 in public and private schools throughout the United States who completed the World Health Organization's Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey during the spring of 1998.

Main Outcome Measure Self-report of involvement in bullying and being bullied by others.

Results A total of 29.9% of the sample reported moderate or frequent involvement in bullying, as a bully (13.0%), one who was bullied (10.6%), or both (6.3%). Males were more likely than females to be both perpetrators and targets of bullying. The frequency of bullying was higher among 6th- through 8th-grade students than among 9th- and 10th-grade students. Perpetrating and experiencing bullying were associated with poorer psychosocial adjustment ( P<.001); however, different patterns of association occurred among bullies, those bullied, and those who both bullied others and were bullied themselves.

Conclusions The prevalence of bullying among US youth is substantial. Given the concurrent behavioral and emotional difficulties associated with bullying, as well as the potential long-term negative outcomes for these youth, the issue of bullying merits serious attention, both for future research and preventive intervention.

Bullying among school-aged youth is increasingly being recognized as an important problem affecting well-being and social functioning. While a certain amount of conflict and harassment is typical of youth peer relations, bullying presents a potentially more serious threat to healthy youth development. The definition of bullying is widely agreed on in literature on bullying. Bullying is a specific type of aggression in which (1) the behavior is intended to harm or disturb, (2) the behavior occurs repeatedly over time, and (3) there is an imbalance of power, with a more powerful person or group attacking a less powerful one. This asymmetry of power may be physical or psychological, and the aggressive behavior may be verbal (eg, name-calling, threats), physical (eg, hitting), or psychological (eg, rumors, shunning/exclusion).

The majority of research on bullying has been conducted in Europe and Australia. Considerable variability among countries in the prevalence of bullying has been reported. In an international survey of adolescent health-related behaviors, the percentage of students who reported being bullied at least once during the current term ranged from a low of 15% to 20% in some countries to a high of 70% in others. Of particular concern is frequent bullying, typically defined as bullying that occurs once a week or more. The prevalence of frequent bullying reported internationally ranges from a low of 1.9% among 1 Irish sample to a high of 19% in a Malta study.

Bullying takes many forms, and findings about the types of bullying that occur are fairly similar across countries. A British study involving 23 schools found that direct verbal aggression was the most common form of bullying, occurring with similar frequency in both sexes. Direct physical aggression was more common among boys, while indirect forms were more common among girls. Similarly, in a study of several middle schools in Rome, the most common types of bullying reported by boys were threats, physical harm, rejection, and name-calling. The most common forms for girls were name-calling, teasing, rumors, rejection, and taking of personal belongings.

Research examining characteristics of youth involved in bullying has consistently found that both bullies and those bullied demonstrate poorer psychosocial functioning than their noninvolved peers. Youth who bully others tend to demonstrate higher levels of conduct problems and dislike of school, whereas youth who are bullied generally show higher levels of insecurity, anxiety, depression, loneliness, unhappiness, physical and mental symptoms, and low self-esteem. Males who are bullied also tend to be physically weaker than males in general. The few studies that have examined the characteristics of youth who both bully and are bullied found that these individuals exhibit the poorest psychosocial functioning overall.

The current research provides a foundation for an understanding of the bullying problem. However, it is insufficient to guide intervention and policy development. Moreover, little is known specifically about bullying among US youth. In one county-wide middle school survey, 24.1% of youth reported bullying others at least once in the past semester; it is not known whether this is characteristic of the rest of the nation.

The purpose of this study was to report the prevalence of bullying in a nationally representative sample of US youth in grades 6 through 10, along with information on differences in the prevalence of bullying by sex, grade, and race. In addition, the relationships among bullying, being bullied, and psychosocial adjustment are explored for 3 distinct groups: bullies only, those bullied only, and those who both bully and are bullied.

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development supported a nationally representative survey of US youth in grades 6 through 10 during spring of 1998. The survey, entitled the Health Behaviour of School-aged Children (HBSC), was part of a collaborative, cross-national research project involving 30 countries and coordinated by the World Health Organization. The US survey was approved by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Institutional Review Board and was carried out by Macro International Inc (Calverton, Md). Both parental and student consent were solicited.

The US sampling universe consisted of all public, Catholic, and other private school students in grades 6 through 10, or their equivalent, excluding schools with enrollment of fewer than 14 students. The sample design used a stratified 2-stage cluster of classes. The sample selection was stratified by racial/ethnic status to provide an oversample of black and Hispanic students. The sample was also stratified by geographic region and counties' metropolitan statistical area status (largest urban areas/not largest urban areas) with probability proportional to total enrollment in eligible grades of the primary sampling units. Sample size was determined on the criteria of making estimates for all US students in grades 6 through 10 with a precision of 3% at a 95% confidence level, and for minority students with a precision of 5% at a 95% confidence level.

An 83% participation rate was achieved. The school-based sample design, using 1 class period for completion of the questionnaire, precluded ability to compare respondent characteristics with those of nonparticipants. Responding students in sampled classes were excluded if they were out of the target range for grade or if age was outside of the 99th percentile for grade (n = 440 students), or if either grade or age were unknown (n = 39 students), yielding an analytic sample of 15 686 students.

Measures were obtained from a self-report questionnaire containing 102 questions about health behavior and relevant demographic variables. Items were based on both theoretical hypotheses related to the social context of adolescents and measurements that had been validated in other studies or previous WHO-HBSC surveys. Measures were pretested.

Bullying. Questions about bullying were preceded with the following explanation. Here are some questions about bullying. We say a student is BEING BULLIED when another student, or a group of students, say or do nasty and unpleasant things to him or her. It is also bullying when a student is teased repeatedly in a way he or she doesn't like. But it is NOT BULLYING when two students of about the same strength quarrel or fight.

Participation in bullying was assessed by 2 parallel questions that asked respondents to report the frequency with which they bullied others in school and away from school during the current term. Similarly, being bullied was assessed by 2 parallel questions asking respondents to report the frequency with which they were bullied in school and away from school during the current term. Because the analytic focus of the current study was the relationship of bullying behaviors to overall psychosocial adjustment, frequencies of bullying behaviors in and out of school were combined for all analyses. Response categories were "I haven't . . . ," "once or twice," "sometimes," "about once a week," and "several times a week." An analysis of the response distribution revealed fewer subjects in the fourth category than the fifth, a deviation from the expected skewed pattern. Hence, the latter 2 response options were collapsed. Additional questions asked respondents to report the frequency with which they were bullied in each of 5 ways-belittled about religion/race, belittled about looks/speech, hit/slapped/pushed, subject of rumors or lies, and subject of sexual comments/gestures.

Psychosocial Adjustment. Measures of psychosocial adjustment included questions about problem behaviors, social/emotional well-being, and parental influences. Alcohol use was measured by 3 items assessing frequency of alcohol consumption. The frequency of smoking, fighting, and truancy were assessed by 1 item each. Academic achievement was assessed by an item querying perceived school performance. Three items (α = .70) queried the frequency of feeling lonely, feeling left out, and being alone because others at school did not want to spend time with the person. One item assessed ease of making friends. Three items (α = .72) were used to assess relationship with classmates: "enjoy being together," "are kind and helpful," and "accept me." School climate was measured by 7 items (α = .82) related to the respondent's perception of the school and teachers. Three items measured parental involvement in school (α = .82), and 1 item assessed respondents' perceptions about their parents' attitudes toward teen drinking.

Statistical sample weights were developed to adjust the minority oversampling and to obtain student totals by grade comparable to population grade estimates from the US National Center for Education Statistics. Weighted data analyses were conducted using SUDAAN software. Descriptive statistics were conducted using SUDAAN to obtain percentage distributions and confidence intervals (CIs) based on the weighted data, with SEs adjusted for the sample design. All CIs are shown at the 95% level.

To examine the relationship between psychosocial adjustment and bullying/being bullied, students were classified as noninvolved, bullies only, those bullied only, or both bully and bullied coincidentally, and a separate model was fit for each outcome. Students who were neither bullies nor bullied served as the reference group. Each outcome had 4 ordinal levels based on frequency of the behavior-never, once or twice, sometimes, and once a week or more. The proportional odds model was used to examine the relationship between a range of psychosocial adjustment constructs and each of the outcomes. Inherent in this model is the proportional odds assumption, which states that the cumulative odds ratio for any 2 values of the covariate is constant across response categories. Its interpretation is that the odds of being in category ≤κ is exp[β′(x ₁ − x ₂)] times higher at the covariate vector x = x ₁ than at x = x ₂, where the parameter vector β contains the regression coefficients for the covariate x. A cumulative logit function was used to estimate the model parameters via the generalized estimating equations. The dependence of responses within clusters was specified using an exchangable working correlation structure. To account for the dependence between outcomes in estimating the variances, robust variance estimates were used for the estimated parameters. The MULTILOG procedure of SUDAAN was used to fit the proportional odds model with exchangable correlation structure. Each model was first fit using the full sample, and then refit using 4 subsamples stratified by sex and education level (middle school vs high school).

Overall, 10.6% of the sample reported bullying others "sometimes" (moderate bullying) and 8.8% admitted to bullying others once a week or more (frequent bullying), providing a national estimate of 2 027 254 youth involved in moderate bullying and 1 681 030 youth in frequent bullying ( Table 1). Experiencing bullying was reported with similar frequency, with 8.5% bullied "sometimes" and 8.4% bullied once a week or more, for a national estimate of 1 634 095 students bullied with moderate frequency and 1 611 809 bullied frequently ( Table 2). A sizable number of students reported both bullying others and being bullied themselves. Of the total sample, 29.9% (an estimated 5 736 417 youth) reported some type of involvement in moderate or frequent bullying, as a bully (13.0%), a target of bullying (10.6%), or both (6.3%).

Demographic variation in the frequency of bullying was observed. Males both bullied others and were bullied significantly more often than females. Bullying occurred most frequently in 6th through 8th grade. Hispanic youth reported marginally higher involvement in moderate and frequent bullying of others, whereas black youth reported being bullied with significantly less frequency overall. No significant differences in the frequency of being bullied were observed among youth from urban, suburban, town, and rural areas (χ ² ₉ = 11.72, P = .24). However, small differences were observed in the frequency of bullying others (χ ² ₉ = 19.13, P = .03): 2% to 3% fewer suburban youth reported participation in moderate bullying, and 3% to 5% more rural youth reported ever bullying than youth from town, suburban, and urban areas (data not shown).

Table 3 presents the frequency with which those bullied reported being bullied in each of 5 specific ways. Being bullied through belittling one's looks or speech was common for both sexes. Males reported being bullied by being hit, slapped, or pushed more frequently than did females. Females more frequently reported being bullied through rumors or sexual comments. Being bullied through negative statements about one's religion or race occurred with the lowest frequency for both sexes.

Results of the analyses of the relationship among indicators of psychosocial adjustment and bullying/being bullied using the proportional odds model are presented in Table 4a. The overall model for each of the outcomes was significant ( P<.001). All main effects were significant in at least 1 of the models. Table 4 also shows the estimated odds ratios for each psychosocial adjustment construct in the model (adjusting for all other constructs in the model), indicating the odds of having a greater frequency of the outcome variable compared with the reference group.

Bullies, those bullied, and individuals reporting both bullying and being bullied all demonstrated poorer psychosocial adjustment than noninvolved youth; however, differences in the pattern of maladjustment among the groups were observed. Fighting was positively associated with all 3 outcomes. Alcohol use was positively associated with bullying and negatively associated with being bullied. Smoking and poorer academic achievement were associated with both bullying and coincident bullying/being bullied; poorer perceived school climate was related only to bullying. Poorer relationships with classmates and increased loneliness, on the other hand, were associated with both being bullied and coincident bullying/being bullied. Ability to make friends was negatively related to being bullied and positively related to bullying. A permissive parental attitude toward teen drinking was associated only with coincident bullying/being bullied, while increased parental involvement in school was related to both being bullied and coincident bullying/being bullied.

Results from the analyses of the 4 sex/age subgroups (data not shown) yielded findings similar to the model based on the full sample. No notable differences among groups were observed for fighting, academic achievement, perceived school climate, and relationship with classmates. However, differences by sex and age were observed for several variables. While smoking was positively associated with bullying and coincident bullying/being bullied among all groups, the magnitude of the relationship was greater for middle school youth than high school youth. Middle school males also showed a positive relationship between loneliness and bullying; this was not the case for any of the other groups. Among high school youth, bullying/being bullied was positively related to alcohol consumption; this relationship was not observed among middle school youth. High school females, on the other hand, did not demonstrate a significant relationship between poorer friendship-making and being bullied, whereas the other groups did. In addition, permissive parental attitude toward teen drinking was associated with bullying/being bullied for all groups except high school females. Finally, greater parental involvement in school was related to being bullied and bullying/being bullied for males (both middle and high school) but not females. It was related to bullying for high school males only.

This study indicates that bullying is a serious problem for US youth. Consistent with previous studies, bullying was reported as more prevalent among males than females and occurred with greater frequency among middle school-aged youth than high school-aged youth. For males, both physical and verbal bullying were common, while for females, verbal bullying (both taunting and sexual comments) and rumors were more common. However, verbal bullying through derogatory statements about one's religion or race occurred infrequently for both sexes. This finding may reflect stronger social norms among adolescents against such behavior. That is, it may be more socially acceptable for a youth to taunt peers about their appearance than to make derogatory racial statements.

Both bullying and being bullied were associated with poorer psychosocial adjustment; however, there were notable differences among those bullied, bullies, and those reporting both behaviors. Those bullied demonstrated poorer social and emotional adjustment, reporting greater difficulty making friends, poorer relationships with classmates, and greater loneliness. Youth who are socially isolated and lack social skills may be more likely targets for being bullied. This is consonant with the finding by Hoover and colleagues that the most frequent reason cited by youth for persons being bullied is that they "didn't fit in." At the same time, youth who are bullied may well be avoided by other youth, for fear of being bullied themselves or losing social status among their peers. Considering the high degree of relationship observed, it is likely that both processes occur. Being bullied was also associated with greater parental involvement in school, which may reflect parents' awareness of their child's difficulties. Conversely, parental involvement may be related to a lower level of independence among these youth, potentially making them more vulnerable to being bullied. Interestingly, being bullied was associated with less frequency of alcohol use and had a nonlinear relationship with smoking. This is not altogether surprising, given Farrington's finding that socially inept youth were less likely to be involved in delinquency than other youth.

Persons who bullied others were more likely to be involved in other problem behaviors such as drinking alcohol and smoking. They showed poorer school adjustment, both in terms of academic achievement and perceived school climate. Yet they reported greater ease of making friends, indicating that bullies are not socially isolated. Considering their greater involvement in other problem behaviors, it is likely that these youth have friends who endorse bullying and other problem behaviors, and who may be involved in bullying as well.

Those youth who reported both bullying and being bullied demonstrated poorer adjustment across both social/emotional dimensions and problem behaviors. Considering the combination of social isolation, lack of success in school, and involvement in problem behaviors, youth who both bully others and are bullied may represent an especially high-risk group. It is not known whether these youth were first bullied and then imitated the bullying behavior they experienced or whether they were bullies who then received retaliation. Current understanding tends to support the former explanation. Olweus describes a small subset of bullied youth he terms "provocative victims," individuals who demonstrate both anxious and aggressive behavior patterns and who are known for starting fights and engaging in disruptive behavior. Pellegrini and colleagues further discuss the "aggressive victim," defined as youth who respond to bullying with reactive aggression. These youth do not tend to use aggression in a proactive or instrumental manner, but rather are aggressive in retaliatory circumstances.

The patterns of relationships between bullying/being bullied and psychosocial adjustment observed in this study were similar across age and sex groups, providing support for the stability of the findings. The differences that emerged may be useful for those conducting research or developing interventions targeting specific populations. For example, the stronger relationship between bullying and smoking observed among middle school youth may reflect an association of bullying with deviance; as smoking becomes more normative in the older youth, it is less associated with bullying. The lack of a relationship between being bullied and poorer friendship-making among high school females could indicate that by this age, females are more apt to find a peer group in which they "fit," even though the peer group may consist of youth of similar social status.

Several limitations of the study should be noted. The HBSC is a broadly focused survey regarding the health behaviors of middle- and high school-aged youth. As such, more in-depth information, such as might be obtained from an intervention study addressing bullying, are not available. This study includes middle- and high school-aged youth but does not address elementary school youth. The data are cross-sectional, and as such, the direction of relationships among the variables cannot be determined. Another limitation is the reliance on self-report for measurement of bullying. While self-report is a common and accepted method of measuring bullying, individual perceptions of bullying nevertheless may vary. To minimize subjectivity, students were provided with a detailed definition of bullying along with examples.

While research on the long-term consequences of bullying is minimal, the studies that have been conducted show negative effects into adulthood. Olweus found former bullies to have a 4-fold increase in criminal behavior at the age of 24 years, with 60% of former bullies having at least 1 conviction and 35% to 40% having 3 or more convictions. Their earlier pattern of achieving desired goals through bullying likely inhibited the learning of more socially acceptable ways of negotiating with others. Conversely, individuals formerly bullied were found to have higher levels of depression and poorer self-esteem at the age of 23 years, despite the fact that, as adults, they were no more harassed or socially isolated than comparison adults. Those who have been bullied may view such treatment as evidence that they are inadequate and worthless and may internalize these perceptions. No study has assessed the long-term outcomes for those who both bully others and are bullied. Given their initial poorer adjustment status, it is possible that they fare worse than either bullies or those bullied.

While this study provides important data on the prevalence and psychosocial correlates of bullying among US youth, further research is needed. Of particular importance would be prospective studies addressing factors that lead to bullying, as well as studies on the long-term consequences of bullying and being bullied. Longitudinal studies also would be valuable in better understanding the nature of those who bully and are bullied.

The prevalence of bullying observed in this study suggests the importance of preventive intervention research targeting bullying behaviors. Effective prevention will require a solid understanding of the social and environmental factors that facilitate and inhibit bullying and peer aggression. This knowledge could then be used to create school and social environments that promote healthy peer interactions and intolerance of bullying. School-based interventions have demonstrated positive outcomes in Norway and England, with reductions in bullying of 30% to 50%. These interventions focused on changes within the school and classroom climate to increase awareness about bullying, increase teacher and parent involvement and supervision, form clear rules and strong social norms against bullying, and provide support and protection for individuals bullied. This type of approach has not been tested in the United States.

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Context Although violence among US youth is a current major concern, bullying is infrequently addressed and no national data on the prevalence of bullying are available.Objectives To measure the prevalence of bullying behaviors among US youth and to determine the association of bullying and being...

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Why is Bullying a Problem?    

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Why is Bullying a Problem?    

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Why is bullying a problem?

It impacts everyone!

It interferes with learning!

It has long lasting impacts!

Bullying is a major leading cause for death among young people!

What are the consequences of bullying for students?

These consequences impact more than just the victim- the bully and bystanders too:

Academic performance likely to decrease!

Decrease participation and engagement in school activities

Mental/physical health impacted

Drop out of school or vandalize property

Criminal convictions likelihood increases

Substance use increased risk

Depression, anxiety, loneliness

Suicide