Bullying and development

DATE: 1980s forward

TYPE OF PSYCHOLOGY: Developmental psychology; social psychology

Bullying is an intentional, aggressive, recurring act involving a power imbalance between the individuals involved. Targets of bullying have higher rates of depression and anxiety, lower levels of self-esteem, and lower academic performance than their peers who are not bullied.

Introduction

Research professor of psychology Dan Olweus defined bullying as an intentional act of aggression that is designed to harm another person, is often repeated, and reflects a power imbalance between the individuals involved. Bullying can be either direct (as in hitting, kicking, pushing, teasing, verbal harassment, and obscene gestures) or indirect (as in spreading rumors, excluding others, and cyberbullying). Although most people equate bullying with physical attacks, in fact the most common type of bullying involves verbal taunts or threats.

Olweus began the systematic study of bullying in the 1970s in Norway and Sweden. In a survey of more than 150,000 children and youth, Olweus found that 15 percent of the respondents had experienced bullying—9 percent as victims, 7 percent as bullies, and 2 percent as both bully and victim. He later developed the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program in response to the 1983 suicide of three bullying victims in Norway.

The first national study of bullying in the United States was conducted by researcher Tonja R. Nansel and colleagues in 1998, and the results were published in 2001. In a survey of more than 15,000 students in sixth though twelfth grades, the researchers found that 17 percent reported being victims of bullying, 19 percent reported perpetrating bullying, and 6 percent reported being both bully and victim. The National Center for Education Statistics found that about 19 percent of students aged twelve to eighteen reported they were bullied at school during the 2021–22 academic year.

With the advent of electronic communication, bullying has taken on a new form known as cyberbullying, or online social cruelty. Cyberbullying is defined as bullying that occurs via the internet (social media sites such as Snapchat and Twitter, emails, instant messages, chat rooms, online games, and so on) or through text messages. Unlike traditional bullying, which is most likely to occur at school, cyberbullying can occur anywhere that children and youth have access to technology, leaving targets accessible to perpetrators at any time of the day or night.

Consequences of Bullying

Children and youth who are bullied experience a number of adverse physical and psychological effects. Children who are bullied are more likely to be anxious and depressed and to have lower self-esteem than their peers who do not experience bullying. They are also more likely to have lower academic performance, as assessed by school grades and number of school absences. A survey of Dutch children found that, relative to children who are not bullied, children who are bullied have more frequent headaches and stomachaches. The consequences of bullying are most problematic for children and youth who are both bully and victim.

The Bully and the Victim

The typical bullying victim does not fit any specific profile. However, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that American children who reported being bullied in 2021–22 were more likely to be female and enrolled in rural areas rather than cities. Research also found that bullying rates are higher for students in middle school than in high school. Other research suggests that boys and girls are likely to be victimized in different ways: boys are more likely than girls to be physically bullied, while girls are more likely to be bullied through indirect methods such as social exclusion and rumor spreading. Unlike boys, who tend to be bullied most often by other boys, girls are bullied by both girls and boys.

Children who are bullied are often quiet, sensitive children who may have low self-esteem. They tend to be social isolates who are more comfortable spending time with adults than with their peers. They also frequently experience anxiety and depression. It is often difficult to know whether these characteristics predispose an individual to be bullied or whether they are a consequence of the bullying that subsequently sets the child up for further victimization.

Just as there is no prototype for a victim of bullying, so too is there no single profile of an individual who bullies. However, children who bully are more often boys than girls and more likely to be in middle school. Children and youth who bully are often assertive and impulsive. They fail to follow rules and show little empathy toward others. Although children and youth who bully are often thought to have low self-esteem, in fact they tend to have higher self-esteem and to be less anxious and less depressed than their nonbullied peers according to some experts. Indeed, psychology professor Jaana Juvonen and her colleagues found in 2003 that children who bully are often the most popular children in the class.

Adult Bullying

Although bullying is often associated with children, bullying of adults by adults is just as pervasive and harmful. Adult bullies are often characterized as being subtle in their attack by starting harmful rumors or by using sarcastic or demeaning language to dominate or embarrass, being self-centered, lacking empathy for others, being spontaneous in their attacks, and/or using the threat of attack (as opposed to using physical violence or actions) to frighten and demonstrate power. Researchers who study this type of aggression believe that adult bullies are more interested in achieving a sense of power and domination over others than they are interested in compromise or resolution of conflict. It is with this in mind that people who experience workplace bullying, also referred to as harassment, are advised to report the incident to their supervisor and then step aside from the situation in an attempt to ignore or avoid the bully while company regulations and/or civil laws are enforced. It is important to document the bullying if legal action is pursued. Psychologists believe that adult bullies were as children either bullied themselves or were already bullies.

Prevention

The US Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) created a list of recommended practices regarding bullying prevention and intervention. Included among these is that bullying prevention efforts must involve changing the school climate and acceptable norms. The prevalence of bullying needs to be assessed, and parents, educators, and administrators must unite in an effort to address and combat bullying. Staff should be trained to recognize and intervene in bullying situations, and school policies should be clear regarding the consequences of bullying. Bullying prevention needs to be an ongoing effort, with repeated training sessions for staff and educational sessions for students and parents.

Bibliography

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Bazelon, Emily. "How to Stop the Bullies." The Atlantic, Mar. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/03/how-to-stop-bullies/309217/. Accessed 18 Mar. 2017.

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Englander, Elizabeth Kandel. Bullying and Cyberbullying: What Every Educator Needs to Know. Harvard UP, 2013.

"Bullying." National Center for Education Statistics, nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=719. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024.

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Kowalski, Robin M., Susan P. Limber, and Patricia W. Agatston. Cyber Bullying: Bullying in the Digital Age. Blackwell, 2008.

Nansel, Tonja R., et al. “Bullying Behavior among US Youth: Prevalence and Association with Psychosocial Adjustment.” Journal of the American Medical Association 285.16 (2001): 2094–100.

Olweus, Dan. Bullying at School: What We Know and What We Can Do. Blackwell, 1993.

Patchin, Justin W., and Sameer Hinduja, eds. Cyberbullying Prevention and Response: Expert Perspectives. Routledge, 2012.

StopBullying.gov. US Dept. of Health and Human Services, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.