Bullying: An Age-old Problem That Needs New Solutions (continued)

Beware of traditional stereotypes of bullies as social outcasts who resort to violence because they have no other options. Research from Europe shows that many bullies actually have high levels of social skills and social intelligence (e.g., 16, 17, 18, 19).

Students certainly recognize this. In fact, in one high school, we found (20) that over 60% of the students surveyed  agreed that “bullies are popular,” and that “some of the coolest kids in school are bullies.” As adults, it is not always clear that we recognize the behavior of high status, popular students as bullying, especially given that bullying is sometimes difficult to distinguish from playful aggression or teasing.  In some cases, we may be giving some students the “benefit of the doubt’ and in doing so unintentionally condone their behavior. Moreover, it may be difficult to convince students that bullying is unacceptable when it is a strategy used effectively by high status individuals to maintain power within the peer group (see (12)).

The strategies that students use to bully others can also vary. Physical bullying includes direct physical aggression or attacks on another individual (hitting, kicking, beating up, pushing, spitting, etc.). It can also take the form of property damage or theft. In western countries at least, physical bullying is perhaps the traditional stereotype of bullying, but it is certainly not the only form bullying takes. Bullying can also be verbal in nature. Verbal bullying includes teasing, mocking, name calling, and other forms of verbal humiliation and intimidation, as well as threats, coercion and extortion. It can also include racist, sexist and/or homophobic taunts. Social or relational bullying involves the use of relationships to harass others through gossip, public humiliation and/or embarrassment, rumor-spreading, alienation and exclusion from the group, and/or setting another up to take the blame for something. More recently, researchers have distinguished cyber or electronic bullying in which individuals use the Internet, email or text messaging to threaten, hurt, single out, embarrass, spread rumors or reveal secrets about others. Interestingly, although adults tend to be especially concerned about physical and electronic bullying, student reports indicate that it is social and relational bullying that are experienced far more often.

How Common is Bullying?

When young people, aged 11, 13 and 15 were asked to report on their experiences with bullying and victimization within the preceding two months, prevalence rates ranged from 1% to 50% across 25 countries in Europe and North America (9). Overall, about 35% of students reported bullying others at least once over the previous two months while about 34% of respondents reported being victimized at least once (21). For 11%, peer victimization occurred 2 or 3 times or more in the preceding two months. The figures vary considerably across countries, ranging from 9 to 73% for bullying others and from 2 to 36% for victimization.

How Stable is Bullying?

Some researchers have found that bullying and victimization are fairly stable characteristics in that the same children tend to bully or be bullied over several years in school (22, 23, 24, 25). However, other research indicates that the majority of children admit to being bullies and victims at least occasionally, and most do not continue in these roles. For example, in a 3-year study of middle school students (26), only 13% of the children remained in their roles of bully, victim or bully-victim across the middle school years; 87% changed their roles during that period. Similarly, over an 8-year period, from elementary to secondary school, other researchers (27) have found that only 16.5% of the children who were bullies at age 8 were still bullies at age 16, and only 9% of children who were victimized continued to be victims. Thus, change is certainly possible, and it is the responsibility of adults to help children learn to use power in appropriate ways. Of particular concern, however, are those youth whose experiences as a bully or victim persist, given the many long-term consequences associated with stable patterns of bullying and victimization (see (13)).

How Complicated Could It Be?

As several articles in this special edition indicate, researchers and educators have come to understand that bullying is not just a problem that is inherent in a troubled child, nor is it just a problem between two people (bully and victim), something that has been called “the dyadic bias”(28). Rather, bullying reflects a problem in interpersonal relationships that also must be considered as a group phenomenon. Indeed, students can be involved in bullying in many different ways: as bullies, as victims and as witnesses. When elementary students were videotaped at school, it was found that peers were present as witnesses to bullying 85% of the time (29), though they seldom intervened on behalf of the victim. Children tend to adopt very different roles in bullying (11, 30). In addition to bully and victim, some children serve as assistants or reinforcers for the bully, others remain outsiders who just walk away or passively watch, and a small but important group of students will act to defend the child being victimized. As demonstrated in the articles included here, it is the complex nature of bullying that has captured the attention of researchers. It is also the complexity of bullying that makes efforts to reduce and eliminate bullying particularly challenging.