Bullying in Schools: Overview

Introduction

Bullying behavior, broadly described as intimidating or harassing another person through physical or verbal assaults and insults and threats, can begin at any age, but it is a particular problem among children and adolescents. Although bullying is usually a one-on-one behavior, it also has a broader social impact. Victims may feel humiliated and thus alienated from everyone in their peer group, while bullies may feel that they have established a position of superiority in the same group. Bullying behavior can continue into adulthood, although by that time it may be regarded as criminal behavior and result in legal action (for example, charges of stalking, harassment, or assault and battery).

The social stratification caused by bullying is often a precursor of adult behavior. Children who are bullies may continue to intimidate, or to try to intimidate, their peers when they are adults. Other adults learn to cope with such behavior, either by standing up to it and challenging the bully or by ignoring the behavior and avoiding the bully. Adult society often tends to place bullies and victims in different social groups.

The development of techniques for dealing with bullies is part of the larger task of schools to create a safe environment for all children and to teach acceptable social behavior. Likewise, the issue of bullying has been addressed at the highest levels of government. In October 2010, for example, US president Barack Obama discussed the issue of bullying in the United States in a video message that was posted on the White House website, and First Lady Michelle Obama frequently spoke out against bullying as well. Following the divisive 2016 presidential election in which Donald Trump—often accused of bullying himself—was the victor, the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance project conducted a survey of more than 10,000 K–12 school teachers, counselors, and administrators. About 90 percent of respondents reported that the school climate had been negatively affected by the campaign, and more than 2,500 respondents described specific incidents of bullying, bigotry, and harassment that could be directly traced to election rhetoric, including assaults on and threats against students and teachers; an increase in the use of racial slurs and derogatory language; and property damage and graffiti featuring swastikas and Confederate flags.

Conversations around bullying in schools and the best way to handle the problem continued into the 2020s, especially amidst the prevalence of social media and cyberbullying and the impacts on student populations. While some argued that students should be able to defend themselves against bullies by seeking support from peers and other actions, others contended that school officials should do more to curb bullying within schools, rather than placing focus on the victim's behavior.

Understanding the Discussion

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD): A developmental disorder that is related to brain development that affects how individuals socialize, communicate, and learn. Individuals with ASD can easily become victims of bullying.

Assault: In criminal law, may refer to a verbal threat of violence, whereas "battery" refers to the actual act of violence. Most US jurisdictions define assault as an attempt, whether successful or not, to cause bodily injury. Some states expand this definition to include attempts to menace someone by putting that person in fear of imminent injury. Assault is also defined as unwanted physical contact or unwanted sexual advances.

Bullying: In general, behavior by one person that intimidates another. Often, bullying involves a real or implied threat of physical aggression and is directed by a physically larger or older person toward someone smaller or younger. In addition to physical actions (hitting, pushing, punching), definitions of bullying may include verbal actions (threatening, taunting, teasing) or even excluding the target from group activities.

Cyberbullying: A form of bullying that takes place over digital devices such as cell phones and computers. For example, cyberbullying can include harmful or false content about another person shared via text message or social media platforms. Also called electronic bullying.

History

Aggressive behavior that could result in police action when carried out by an adult is viewed differently when carried out by a child. For example, if a driver involved in a two-car accident were to punch the other driver, he or she may well be arrested and charged with assault or with assault and battery. However, a twelve-year-old who punches another student during a playground baseball game may only be reprimanded by a teacher if the action is witnessed.

Among children, typical bullying behavior can range from hitting smaller or younger children to simply threatening to do so. Bullying behavior may also be somewhat more subtle, especially among girls, such as starting vicious rumors about another student or habitually excluding them from group activities and encouraging other children to do the same.

While bullying may start at any age, it becomes most apparent in children entering preadolescence and in adolescence, any time after age nine or ten for most children. The physical and emotional differences between children at the beginning of adolescence can give rise to problems when children at different stages of development are in school together. Some children, for example, begin a growth spurt earlier than others, which places them at an advantage in physical confrontations.

The physical changes associated with adolescence are also accompanied by changes in psychology. Adolescents begin feeling more independent of adults, parents, and teachers alike, and often feel a new level of self-awareness. By age ten or eleven, it becomes obvious that some children are more gifted in certain areas, such as athleticism or artistic talent, than others. Adolescents are also beginning to gain sexual awareness due to a change in hormone levels, which often manifests itself in a new pattern of group behavior. This complex set of changes typically produces feelings of uncertainty or insecurity. Adolescents may seek relief from these feelings by becoming withdrawn or argumentative, or they may turn to bullying behavior. Belittling or intimidating another child, either physically or psychologically, might give a boost to an insecure adolescent's self-esteem.

Some victims of bullying may suffer from learning disabilities or developmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Individuals with ASD display varying levels of intelligence and language development but have less developed social and communication skills than their peers. Victims of bullying behavior may also be slightly behind the curve in physical growth, or they may have developed feelings of insecurity in childhood. In some cases, they may come from a different social, ethnic, religious, racial, or financial background, or they may identify as part of the LGBTQ community, which may make it harder for them to fit in with other children in their school. Psychologists realize that children (and adults) have a way of communicating insecurity to others, unconsciously signaling that they would be easy to intimidate.

The phenomenon of bullying involves three players: the bully, the bully's victim, and the larger peer group of children who are neither bullies nor victims but who witness the bullying. The reaction of the peer group can have an important impact on both the bully and the victim. If other children behave in ways that boost the bully's ego at the expense of the victim, the bully receives positive reinforcement that may encourage more bullying. However, if the peer group comes to the rescue of the victim by confronting the bully, the victim is protected and may avoid feeling that he or she has been singled out as a victim, while the bully gets negative feedback, which may discourage future instances of bullying.

Traditionally, the approach of teachers in dealing with bullying has been driven by pragmatism: try to prevent the bully's behavior; if that fails, counsel the victim and involve the peer group by convincing them that bullying is unacceptable. Although these methods do nothing to address the underlying issues, they can make a difficult situation more tolerable. Dealing with the bully focuses first on prevention, to make sure that any bullies are not given a chance to behave badly. If and when prevention fails and bullying does take place, the bully's actions can be punished by separating him or her from the larger group, detaining him or her after school, or excluding him or her altogether by suspension or expulsion. When schools are able to provide psychological counseling, bullies can be treated to discourage their behavior.

Tactics for dealing with the victim are more varied. Commonly, a teacher may advise the victim to deny that something has happened ("ignore it" is the usual form of this advice), to run away ("stay away from the bully," which may also result in social isolation for the victim), or to fight back ("stand up for yourself"). If a victim is unable to fight back, either due to physical limitations or because he or she has truly been intimidated, this advice may well simply reinforce the message of the bully.

Dealing with the peer group involves raising awareness of how not to behave in a group and encouraging children to counter bullies by taking steps to make victims feel welcome and safe within the group while isolating the bully. One limitation to this approach is that once a teacher is able to intervene, the peer group may have already dissolved, leaving the bully and victim as the easiest to identify and to counsel.

Persistent bullying has allegedly led in some cases to self-harm and even suicide, and in these cases, parents have sometimes tried to hold the teachers and administrators legally responsible for failing to stop the bullying. In one such example, the parents of a thirteen-year-old girl who died by suicide after years of bullying filed a lawsuit against her Ohio school district in 2015. In Virginia, the organization Advocates for Equity in Schools created a form that parents can use to file a complaint of criminal negligence against their children's schools in cases of bullying. The latter was criticized by the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, which argued that a civil suit is more appropriate in such situations.

Bullying in Schools Today

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 22 percent of students between the ages of twelve and eighteen reported being bullied at school in 2019. The prevalence of bullying and the growing awareness of the psychological harm and educational disadvantages it can cause has prompted schools to recognize their obligation to address the issue. Psychologists widely recommend that bullying be treated not just as a matter of civil order, akin to childhood assault and battery, but as a developmental issue, one among many that affect adolescents. As such, the rates of bullying reported in 2019 represented a decrease of six points from a decade prior in 2009, showing that progress had been made.

However, cyberbullying continued to be a significant and increasing issue in schools. About 16 percent of students in grades nine through twelve reported being bullied electronically, or cyberbullied, by their peers in 2019, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Victims of cyberbullying are intimidated, harassed, or shamed by others via the internet, often on social networking sites or through text messages on cell phones. Perpetrators of cyberbullying may start harmful rumors about their victims, or they may adopt a false identity, sometimes that of another peer, to interact with their victims directly. While cyberbullies are not always schoolmates of their victims, they do tend to know their victims personally. Cyberbullying is most prevalent among teens, but it can also be found in the upper elementary grades. This type of bullying is particularly difficult for school officials to stop, partly because it can be challenging to identify the culprit and partly because even when the bully can be identified, laws governing online interactions are less well-defined than those dealing with in-person interactions, and in many cases the school has no grounds to become involved. Furthermore, instances of cyberbullying can follow victims home, leaving them unable to escape the harassment at the end of the school day or by moving to another school district.

By 2022, all fifty states had created anti-bullying laws, and the majority of states had additional anti-bullying policies, including to deal with cyberbullying. However, reports of bullying remained high in certain populations, such as the LGBTQ community. According to a 2021 report from the Trevor Project, an advocacy group for LGBTQ youth, 52 percent of LGBTQ middle and high school students reported being bullied in some capacity—whether in person or electronically—in 2020. That same report also noted that the attempted suicide rate of LGBTQ youth is four times higher than that of their straight and cisgender peers, and that risk is known to be exacerbated by unfavorable treatment like bullying. Furthermore, transgender and nonbinary students had even higher rates of bullying than others in the LGBTQ community, with 61 percent of trans and nonbinary students reporting bullying in 2020, according to the Trevor Project. In early 2024, Nex Benedict, a nonbinary high school student in Oklahoma, died by suicide after being bullied at school, leading to increased calls for protections for nonbinary and trans students.

These essays and any opinions, information, or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.

Bibliography

"Bullying." National Crime Prevention Council, www.ncpc.org/resources/bullying/. Accessed 9 May 2024.

"Bullying and Suicide Risk among LGBTQ Youth." The Trevor Project, 14 Oct. 2021, www.thetrevorproject.org/research-briefs/bullying-and-suicide-risk-among-lgbtq-youth/. Accessed 30 May 2022.

"Bullying at School and Electronic Bullying." National Center for Education Statistics, US Department of Education, May 2021, nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/a10#. Accessed 8 May 2024.

Children, Violence and Bullying: International Perspectives, edited by Joav Merrick, Isack Kandel, and Hatim A. Omar, Nova, 2014.

Davis, Stan, and Julia Davis. Schools Where Everyone Belongs: Practical Strategies for Reducing Bullying. 2nd ed., Research, 2007.

Juvonen, Jaana, and Elisheva F. Gross. "Extending the School Grounds? Bullying Experiences in Cyberspace." Journal of School Health, vol. 78, no. 9, 2008, pp. 496–505. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=33533365&site=ehost-live. Accessed 15 Oct. 2015.

Langdon, Susan W., and William Preble. "The Relationship between Levels of Perceived Respect and Bullying in 5th through 12th Graders." Adolescence, vol. 43, no. 171, 2008, pp. 485–503. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=35390796&site=ehost-live. Accessed 15 Oct. 2015.

Meyer-Adams, Nancy, and Bradley T. Conner. "School Violence: Bullying Behaviors and the Psychosocial School Environment in Middle Schools." Children and Schools, vol. 30, no. 4, 2008, pp. 211–21. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=34758072&site=ehost-live. Accessed 15 Oct. 2015.

Murphy, Sean. "A Nonbinary Student's Death After a High School Fight Has Been Ruled a Suicide. Here's What to Know." AP News, 14 Mar. 2024, apnews.com/article/nonbinary-student-death-nex-owasso-oklahoma-1e07834d6aad2475a8f744974d66e765. Accessed 9 May 2024.

Network of Autism Training and Technical Assistance Programs. "Bullying and Students on the Autism Spectrum." Indiana Resource Center for Autism, Indiana University, 2014, www.iidc.indiana.edu/pages/Bullying-and-Students-on-the-Autism-Spectrum. Accessed 15 Oct. 2015.

Rigby, Ken. Children and Bullying: How Parents and Educators Can Reduce Bullying at School. Blackwell, 2008.

StopBullying.gov. Department of Health and Human Services, United States, 2015, www.stopbullying.gov/. Accessed 15 Oct. 2015.

"Tips for Effective Bullying Intervention." Curriculum Review, Jan. 2006, pp. 6–7. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=19354197&site=ehost-live. Accessed 15 Oct. 2015.

"The Trump Effect: The Impact of the 2016 Presidential Election on Our Nation's Schools." Southern Poverty Law Center, 28 Nov. 2016, www.splcenter.org/20161128/trump-effect-impact-2016-presidential-election-our-nations-schools. Accessed 31 Jan. 2017.

Thomas, Chris. "Ignored Complaints about Bullying in Schools Could Land Educators behind Bars." KXXV, 25 May 2016, www.kxxv.com/story/32056656/ignored-complaints-about-bullying-in-schools-could-land-educators-behind-bars. Accessed 16 Sept. 2016.

Wang, Yanan. "After Years of Alleged Bullying, an Ohio Teen Killed Herself. Is Her School District Responsible?" Washington Post, 23 May 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/05/23/after-years-of-alleged-bullying-an-ohio-teen-killed-herself-is-her-school-district-responsible/. Accessed 16 Sept. 2016.