Bullying types in schools (parents)

Bullying behaviour has generated research interest among psychologists and educationalists over the past 10-15 years because of the amount reported to take place and the negative consequences for its victims.

It has been a particular concern for UK educationalists: the work of the project with teachers in Germany and Portugal suggests that it is not yet as widely recognised as a problem in these countries. Indeed neither German nor Portuguese has a specific word for this behaviour in the way English does, making it harder to distinguish from other forms of aggressive behaviour.

VICTEC drew on the recognised work on bullying in Sweden by Olweus (see references) who defined direct/physical victimisation as ‘a student being exposed to negative actions on the part of one or more other students’ with the intention to hurt’. Bullying behaviour is distinguishable from other aggressive behaviour by being a repeated action that occurs regularly over time and usually involves an imbalance in power, either real or perceived.

Bullying involves a wide range of behaviours which have been divided into a number of categories by researchers. Direct physical bullying includes actions such as being hit, kicked or punched, and taking belongings. Verbal bullying involves name calling, cruel teasing, taunting or being threatened. Finally, relational or ‘indirect’ bullying refers to behaviours such as social exclusion, malicious rumour spreading, and the withdrawal of friendships.

There is a definite gender variation in these types of bullying: direct physical bullying is frequent among boys and much rarer among girls while relational bullying is commonly carried out by girls and almost never by boys, at least in the 8-12 age group.

Studies have revealed substantial variations internationally in the amount of victimisation, ranging from 8% to 46% for victimisation in primary schools (age 8-12 years) and 4% to 30% (age 11-16) among secondary school pupils. The incidence of bullying others ranges from 3% to 23% for primary school pupils and 4%-19% for secondary school pupils. Work in the UK has also contradicted various assumptions: bullying is worse in small rural schools, rather than big inner-city ones, and happens just as often in more middle-class intakes as among children from less prosperous backgrounds.

Research has also identified a number of different roles in bullying, including the victim, bully, reinforcer of the bully, assistant of the bully, defender of the victim and outsider.

A sizeable group of children cannot be simply classified as ‘pure’ bullies or ‘pure’ victims, but both bully other children and are victimised at other times, and have been termed bully/victims. Bully/victims have been found to be a distinct group of children in terms of their behavioural characteristics and are rated as being the least popular by peers, easily provoked, provoking others and hot tempered. Bully/victims are also characterised as having more behaviour problems with hyperactivity, impulsivity, and conduct problems compared to ‘pure’ victims, ‘pure’ bullies or neutral children.

Field research has also shown that teachers often fail to correctly identify pure bullies among their pupils. In contrast to bully/victims, pure bullies often have good social skills and a high social status in their peer group, may often be academically successful and be seen as ‘good pupils’ by their teachers.

Many different intervention initiatives have been tried in attempts to counteract and reduce bullying problems in schools. Examples include the whole-school approach to bullying, the no-blame approach for the bully and class activities such as ‘circle time’ and peer mediation techniques. However, all of these strategies have reported limited long-term success rates. VICTEC aimed to provide a novel, innovative approach to help deal with bullying problems in a fun and exciting environment.

Created on 09/15/2006 11:49 AM by ecirweb
Updated on 09/15/2006 11:53 AM by ecirweb