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See also our Teens Hurting Teens Study about criminal violence between youth aged 12 to 17.
Information for Parents and Teachers
This is an excerpt from the second edition of A.S.A.P.: A School-based Anti-Violence Program (1996). For background reading on bullying, recommended videos, and a list of books for classroom use, see the full A.S.A.P. package.
WHAT IS BULLYING?
Bullying can be defined as repeated and systematic harassment and attacks on others. Bullying can be perpetrated by individuals or groups. Bullying takes many forms, and can include may different behaviours, such as:
Racially or ethnically-based verbal abuse and gender-based put-downs are also found in the bullying situation.
How prevalent is bullying?
Dynamics of Bully-Victim Situations
Research on Bullying
Professor Dan Olweus, the pre-eminent researcher of bullying among school-age children and youth, defines bullying as follows:
A power imbalance is found at the heart of the bullying dynamic. A student who is stronger, more aggressive, bolder, and more confident than average typically bullies other students who are weaker, more timid, and who tend not to retaliate or act in an assertive manner. Sometimes older students bully younger ones, or upper year students bully new students. Sometimes bullies pick on students who are disadvantaged by being new immigrants or are from a cultural minority group.
As with other interpersonal violence, such as dating violence, racial harassment, child abuse, and wife assault, the power imbalance is a main factor in understanding what is going on. Interventions must take this into account.
It is a myth that bullies are insecure underneath their bravado. Research indicates that their self esteem is, on average, average or above average. It appears that bullies tend to come from homes where aggressive strategies to conflict resolution is modelled, although more research needs to be done on this connection.
Victims tend to be timid and, in the case of boys, tend to be physically weaker and less skilled than bullies. Victims tend to lack assertive responses to peer aggression, and they tend to be low on skills for making friends. They generally do not retaliate when they are picked on, so that they come to be seen as "safe" targets for bullying.
Prevalence of Bullying
Bullying is an old and widespread problem. Most of us can recall episodes of bullying that we or our classmates were subjected to during our school years. Research estimates indicate that the problem affects far more students than teachers or parents are aware of. A recent study of 1041 students in four Toronto area schools (Grades K-8) showed that the proportion of children who reported being victimized more than once or twice over the term was between 12 and 15 per cent (Pepler, Craig, Ziegler & Charach, 1994). The proportion of students who reported having bullied others more than once or twice over the term ranged from 7 to 9 per cent.
Olweus, in his extensive studies over the past twenty years in Norway, has found that about 15 per cent, or one in seven students, are involved in bully/victim problems. Of these, about 9 per cent are victims, and 7 per cent bully others with some regularity (Olweus, 1993). When Dr. Olweus and his colleagues looked at very serious bully-victim problems, they found that slightly more than 3 per cent of their very large sample were bullied once a week or more, while just less than 2 per cent of students bullied other that frequently.
Studies from a number of other countries have confirmed that rates of bullying are the same or higher in England, the United States, Japan, Ireland, Australia, and the Netherlands, among other countries.
Another important finding from these research studies is that most students who are bullied either do not report the bullying to adults, or they wait a very long time before doing so. The reasons include feelings of shame, fear of retaliation for reporting, and fear that adults cannot or will not protect the victim in the settings where bullying usually takes place: the playground, the hallway of the school, or on the way to and from school.
Olweus and colleagues have found that the percentage of students who report being victims of bullying decreases with age, over grades 2 to 9. In their sample of over 83,000 students in Norway, they found that while between 16 and 17 per cent of students in Grade 2 reported being bullied, by Grade 9, the percentages decreased to 3 per cent of girls and 6.5 per cent of boys (Olweus, 1993). A large proportion of the bullied children in the lower grades reported being bullied by older children. This again underlines the role of power differentials in bullying.
In Canada, the studies on bullying have been fewer and much smaller scale, than those in Norway, so there is less information available with regard to patterns over different grade levels. The study by Pepler et al. (1994) does not provide a grade breakdown in incidence of bullying. Another study, which was done by Ryan, Mathews and Banner (1993), provides information about aggression and victimization in a sample of 457 grade 7, 8, and 9 students. Ryan et al. (1993) used a substantially different set of questions compared to the Olweus and the Pepler et al. studies. Therefore, it is not possible to make direct comparisons between these studies, as to the rates of bullying at different grade levels. The students were asked to report whether each type of incident had ever happened to them, with no time period specified. Therefore, students in each grade may have been reporting incidents that happened to them in earlier grades. Also, the students in this study were asked to report on one-time occurrences of violence, rather than on repeated patterns or bullying. The Ryan et al. study found fairly high rates of occurrence of violent incidents, with a wide range of violent incidents being reported, from being threatened to harassed to having lunch money taken, to being threatened with a weapon.
Gender Differences in Bullying
Patterns of bullying and victimization are very different for boys and girls. Boys are much more likely to report being bullies, and perpetrating violent acts on others than are girls, at each age. Girls are somewhat less likely than boys to be the victims of bullying, although the rates are not as discrepant as the bullying (perpetrator) rates.
This suggests that it is important to study whether boys victimize other boys, or both boys and girls, and vice versa.
Olweus (1993) reports that one of his studies, conducted with students in grades five to seven, found that 60 per cent of girls who were bullied were bullied only by boys, while another 15-20 per cent were bullied by both boys and girls. The great majority of boys who were bullied (80 per cent) were bullied only by boys. This shows that it is boys who are more likely to be the perpetrators of what Olweus calls "direct" bullying, that is, bullying which involves direct physical or verbal attacks. He has concluded that girls are more likely to use indirect, subtle, social means to harass other girls. He refers to behaviour such as social exclusion, manipulation of friendship relationships, spreading rumours, etc. However, there appear to be few questions in his questionnaires to address this issue. The one question he did include was "How often does it happen that other students don't want to spend recess with you and you end up being alone?" The results indicated that boys and girls were equally likely to have this problem. Olweus sees this as a measure of "indirect" bullying, but an alternative explanation is that this question may address socially rejected children who are not liked, but who are not intentionally bullied either. These may simply be the less popular children.
One conclusion about gender differences is that boys are more likely to be both the perpetrators and the victims of aggressive physical and verbal bullying by peers. Another conclusion is that girls are much more often a target of bullying by boys than vice versa. Taken together, these conclusions indicate that interventions should take into account the higher rates of aggressive behaviour by males. A third conclusion is that more study is needed of "indirect" or subtle bullying and of social exclusion, by both girls and boys.
What Causes Bullying?
A number of different factors have been identified which contribute to bullying problems. Family, individual, and school factors all contribute.
Family factors: A number of child-rearing styles have been found to predict whether children will grow up to be aggressive bullies. A lack of attention and warmth toward the child, together with modelling of aggressive behaviour at home, and poor supervision of the child, provide the perfect opportunity for aggressive and bullying behaviour to occur (Loeber & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1986; Patterson, DeBaryshe & Ramsey, 1989; and Olweus, 1993). Modelling of aggressive behaviour may include use of physical and verbal aggression toward the child by parents, or use of physical and verbal aggression by parents toward each other. The connection between witnessing wife assault by children, particularly male children, and bully behaviour by children toward peers, has not been well studied, but studies do indicate that aggressive behaviour of all kinds is elevated in children who witness violence by their father toward their mother (Jaffe, Wolfe & Wilson, 1990).
Individual factors: The best-documented individual child factor in bullying is temperament. Temperament refers to basic tendencies by children to develop certain personality styles and interpersonal behaviours. Children who are active and impulsive in temperament may be more inclined to develop into bullies. With boys, physical strength compared to age peers also seems to be a characteristic which is associated with bullying, although of course there are many strong, physically adept boys who never bully.
School factors: The social context and supervision at school have been shown to play a major part in the frequency and severity of bullying problems. While teachers and administrators do not have control over individual and family factors which produce children who are inclined to bully, bullying problems can be greatly reduced in severity by appropriate supervision, intervention and climate in a school.
Supervision of children has been found to be of prime importance. Just as low levels of supervision in the home are associated with the development of bully problems in individual children, so too, are low levels of supervision at school, particularly on the playground or schoolyard and in the hallways. Also, the appropriateness of interventions by adults when they see bullying, or are made aware of it are very important.
The social climate in the school needs to be one where there is warmth and acceptance of all students, and one where there are high standards for student and teacher behaviour toward one another. Teacher attitudes toward aggression, and skills with regard to supervision and intervention, partly determine how teachers will react to bullying situations. Curricula and administrative policies and support are also very important. These are further outlined in the section on Program that Work.
Who Becomes a Victim?
Children who become repeated victims of aggression, and bullying, tend to be quiet and shy in temperament. They tend not to retaliate or make any assertive responses to the initial aggression, which is then repeated by the bully. Children who become victims typically lack friends and social support at school, and they are often not confident in their physical abilities and strength.
While most victims do not do anything to provoke the victimization, there is a subgroup of victims who tend to show irritating and inappropriate social behaviour. These children tend to be impulsive and have poor social skills. These "provocative victims" may also try to bully other children, so they are both bully and victim (Olweus, 1993).
What are the Long-term Consequences for Victims, Bullies, and Bystanders?
Victims of bullying typically are very unhappy children who suffer from fear, anxiety, and low self-esteem as a result of they bullying. They may try to avoid school, and to avoid social interaction, in an effort to escape the bullying. Some victims of bullying are so distressed that they commit, or attempt to commit suicide. Several instances of suicide by boys who had been severely bullied occurred in Norway in the early 1980's. These tragic events mobilized that country to begin a nation-wide anti-bullying program (Olweus, 1993).
Even when bullying does not drive victims to the extremes of suicide, victims experience significant psychological harm which interferes with their social and academic and emotional development. The sooner the bullying is stopped, the better for the long-term outcome for victims. If bullying patterns are allowed to continue unchecked, there are long-term consequences for the victim. A follow-up study by Olweus (1993b) found that by the time former male victims of bullying were in their early twenties, they had generally made a positive social adjustment, as they had more freedom to choose their social and work milieu. However, they were more likely to be depressed, and had lower self-esteem than a comparison group who had not been bullied.
The serious long-term outcomes for bullies are also important to recognize. Bullies tend to become aggressive adults who stand a much higher chance than average of obtaining multiple criminal convictions (Olweus, 1979). These findings by Olweus and his group fit well with other studies which have found exactly the same outcome for children, especially males, who are aggressive as children (e.g. Robins, 1978; Loeber & Dishion, 1983).
Another important but often overlooked group of children who are affected by bullying are those children who are neither victims nor perpetrators of bullying, but who see bullying happen to their peers. There are also children who will not take the intiative to bully themselves, but will follow a bully's lead in helping to harass or victimize a particular child in their class or school. All children, including bystanders, are negatively affected when bullying occurs. The bullying may cause anxiety or fear in bystanders. The learning environment is poisoned by bullying, particularly when there are no effective interventions in the bullying situation. Children who observe violent behaviour and see that it has no negative consequences for the bully, will be more likely to use aggression in the future.
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO STOP BULLYING?
There are many effective strategies for both teachers and parents who wish to stop bullying. An important starting point is to realize that much bullying occurs without the knowledge of teachers and parents, and that many victims are very reluctant to tell adults of their problems with bullying. They may be ashamed to be a victim, and they are afraid that adults cannot or will not help to resolve the situation. They may have been threatened with retaliation if they tell.
Also, adults must re-examine some of their own beliefs with regard to interpersonal behaviour before they can intervene effectively. Many teachers and parents tell children not to "tattle," and to resolve their problems themselves. In the bullying situation, though, there is a power imbalance of some kind which ensures that the victim always gets the worst of the interaction. The victim and bully both need intervention in order to stop the pattern.
Some important strategies in stopping bullying are: providing good supervision for children; providing effective consequences to bullies; using good communication between teachers and parents; providing all children opportunities to develop good interpersonal skills; and creating a social context which is supportive and inclusive, in which aggressive, bully behaviour is not tolerated by the majority.
What Can Parents Do if Their Children are Being Bullied?
1. Ask the child directly. Often children do not wish to tell their parents due to shame and embarrassment, or fear that bullies will retaliate if they tell. Look for signs such as: fear of going to school, lack of friends, missing belongings and torn clothing, and increased fearfulness and anxiety.
2. Work with the school immediately to make sure your child is safe, that effective consequences are applied toward the bully, and that monitoring at school is adequate. Advocate for involvement of the bully's parents. If the bullying is happening on the way to and from school, arrange for the child to get to school with older, supportive children, or take him or her until other interventions can take place.
3. If your child is timid, and lacks friends, try to arrange for your child participate in positive social groups which meet his or her interests. Developing your child's special skills and confidence in the context of a positive social group can be very helpful.
4. Suggest that the school implement a comprehensive anti-bullying program. A home-and school association meeting to discuss and support such an initiative can be helpful.
What to do if Your Child is Aggressive or Bullies Others?
Take the problem seriously. Children and youth who bully others often get into serious trouble in later life, and may receive criminal convictions. They may have continuing trouble in their relationships with others. Here are some things you can do to turn the situation around.
1. Talk to your child, talk to his or her teachers and administrators. Keep in mind that a bully will try to deny or minimize his or her wrong-doing.
2. Make it clear to your child that you will not tolerate this kind of behaviour, and discuss with your child the negative impact bullying has on the victims. Do not accept explanations that "it was all in fun."
3. Arrange for an effective, non-violent consequence, which is in proportion with the severity of your child's actions, and his or her age and stage of development. Corporal punishment carries the message that "might is right."
4. Increase your supervision of your child's activities and whereabouts, and who they are associating with. Spend time with your child, and set reasonable rules for their activities and curfews.
5. Co-operate with the school in modifying your child's aggressive behaviour. Frequent communication with teachers and/or administrators is important to find out how your child is doing in changing his or her behaviour.
6. Praise the efforts your child makes toward non-violent and responsible behaviour, as well as for following home and school rules. Keep praising any efforts the child makes.
7. If your child is viewing violent television shows, including cartoons, and is playing violent video games, this will increase violent and aggressive behaviour. Change family and child's viewing and play patterns to non-violent ones.
8. Make sure that your child is not seeing violence between members of his or her family. Modelling of aggressive behaviour at home can lead to violence by the child against others at school and in later life.
9. Seek help from a school psychologist, social worker, or children's mental health centre in the community if you would like support in working with your child.
What Can Schools Do About Bullying?
Schools can intervene effectively to reduce bullying by developing a safe and supportive school climate. A well-implemented program with parent, teacher, and community support can reduce bullying markedly. Olweus, in his very comprehensive and large-scale school-based program evaluation in Norway, found a reduction of 50 per cent in direct bullying two years after the start of implementation. In addition, both teachers and students reported very positive changes in school climate: improved order and discipline, more positive social relationships, greater satisfaction on the part of students, and reduced vandalism (Olweus, 1991, 1992).
The measures which Olweus (1993) considers to be crucial in the effectiveness of an anti-bullying program are as follows:
Olweus also recommends implementation of some co-operative learning activities in the school, teaching of social skills; and formation of a council of teachers and administrators to take the lead in implementation.
With regard to the school conference day, Olweus recommends including teachers, administrators, parents, and some students, as well as staff such as school psychologists, nurses, and other support staff. He suggests that the participants be given readings on bullying in advance, and that a video on bullying be shown. Discussion on what needs to be done at the school can be held. The purpose of the meeting is to create awareness of and a collective commitment to reducing bullying at school. While more research is needed, especially with regard to implementation challenges, these are the most carefully evaluated and effective violence prevention programs we have encountered.
Additional, helpful suggestions, are provided by Pepler and Craig (1993) who have done considerable research about bullying and aggression at school. These researchers also evaluated the implementation of an anti-bullying program in four Toronto Board of Education schools, which was adapted from the Olweus Norwegian model. Pepler and Craig suggest a number of measures including the following:
In our experience, the above measures are all part of an effective school-wide anti-bullying program. The same measures which work toward violence prevention are effective in anti-bullying programs. Specific sections of the A.S.A.P manual which are most helpful in implementing an anti-bullying program include: the sections on elementary and secondary strategies; and the section on professional development. Specific model documents include the School Board Code of Conduct; and the Parent Newsletter.
Dealing with Bullying Incidents
Each school board or district (or in some cases, individual school) has its own policies and procedures for dealing with discipline and violent incidents at school. These policies and procedures should be reviewed at the start of an anti-bullying, in order to find out if adequate measures are in place for dealing with perpetrators of bullying and supporting victims. This should be done in addition to implementing school-wide prevention measures.
Suggested Steps for Intervening in Bullying Situations
Notes on Implementation of Anti-Bullying Measures
Implementation is a process which usually takes time. Often teachers find that implementing measures such as increased supervision in the schoolyard and hallway can increase workload at first. More incidents are usually dealt with at first, because many incidents of aggression and bullying were previously ignored, or not acted on. When the threshold of what will be tolerated is increased, there are initially more incidents to deal with. However, after a few months of this increased vigilance and intervention, the pay-off for the increased effort becomes evident. Fewer incidents, especially fewer serious incidents, occur. The school climate becomes more positive, as everyone can feel safer and more relaxed at school.
Better supervision of students, greater awareness and sensitivity among teachers, administrators, students and parents, and developing a positive, safe, and pro-social school makes for a better learning and teaching environment. Teachers often find that the professional development they receive with regard to anti-violence and conflict resolution also has positive effects on their own interpersonal and family relationships.
Classroom Activities and Resources
Classroom activities on and ongoing basis are important to an anti-bullying program. At least seven measures can be taken in the classroom:
Developing a Class Code of Conduct
A class code of conduct could be started by holding several lessons on awareness of both bullying and friendly and co-operative behaviours. The class could begin by reading an appropriate story for their age level, or having it read to them. For the youngest (kindergarten and primary) age group, a book in the Berenstain Bears series, called Trouble with the Bully is available in many libraries. For intermediate age groups, the book Don't Pick on Me is a possibility. For older age groups, Lord of the Flies is one possibility. The school librarian or resource centre may have other suggestions. See the references section of A.S.A.P. for references and additional ideas.
A class discussion of the effects of bullying for the victim, for the bully, and for the class as a whole, could be the next step. Students can then be asked what rules they would like to see in the class for behaviour. The teacher may want to give examples of what other classes have done. The language should be simple and clear for all students. For example,
Including violence prevention, anti-racist, and anti-sexist measures in the curriculum is important. Lessons on these topics should be incorporated in the day to day curriculum, not added on as 'extra' subjects. A helpful resource in this regard is the 65 Friendly Lessons for Violence Prevention (Board of Education for the City of London, 1994), which is included in the A.S.A.P. package, or can be ordered separately. These lessons are designed to be included in a number of different subject areas, such as language arts, health, social studies, physical education, and mathematics, or in a multi-faceted lesson.
Social skills training can be implemented with one of the programs outlined in A.S.A.P., such as the Mr. Turtle program from the Board of Education for the City of London, the Second Step curriculum, or other social skills modules available in the Resource Section of A.S.A.P.
An important element of an anti-bullying program in class is teacher attention and praise for positive, pro-social behaviours on the part of all students. This can be done verbally each day, as well as with special certificates recognizing specific pro-social behaviours which are given in class. Such awards can also be given at school assemblies, as part of a violence prevention or anti-bullying day or week. Two examples of such awards for the elementary grades are given in the A.S.A.P. (1996, p. 70). Teachers and schools may wish to develop their own versions of such awards to fit in with the content of their class code of conduct and their anti-violence program. Older students can also help develop these in art classes.
At the same time, students should be assisted to develop self-motivation for acting in positive, non-aggressive, helpful ways. This can be done by arranging opportunities for students to volunteer for different helpful activities with peers and younger students, while providing attention and support for these actions. Material rewards should generally not be used, as they may undermine self-motivation and "internal attributions" on the part of students for wanting to help.
This is an excerpt from A.S.A.P.: A School-based Anti-Violence Program. See also the 65 Friendly Lessons on Violence Prevention. Both can be ordered from the Centre.
Peer-to-Peer Aggression in Residential Settings: Increasing Understanding to Enhance Intervention (2002)
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