Research Paper: Bullying
Among Adolescents
Rebeca Castaneda
11/21/2012
Professor Amy C. Rose, M.Ed.
PSY 1100 – Fall 2012
Introduction
Bullying is repeated, systematic efforts to inflict harm through physical, verbal, or social
attack on a weaker person (Berger, 2010, p. G-2). It occurs in every nation, at any age, and in
both genders. Bullying among adolescents is challenging because not only is there the typical
physical, verbal, and social abuse, but now cyber bullying has made a huge impact. Bullying has
major effects, on both the bully and victim, but it is mostly the victim that has to suffer. I have
always been interested in learning the types of psychological problems that the bully victims
come across during their years of torment and abuse among adolescents. I have my own
experiences with bullying during my adolescent years in junior high school and I can recall that
it definitely left me with trauma issues that I am still working out today.
Literature Review
Study No. 1
Researchers Ersilia Menesini, Marco Modena, and Franca Tani, from the University of
Florence, have selected 537 of the 1,278 Italian students ranging from thirteen to twenty years of
age to write down their responses to a self-report bully and victim questionnaire. The students
were enrolled in 13 secondary schools in the city of Lucca, Italy. The researchers then compared
the concurrent psychological symptoms of 4 participant groups: bullies, victims, bullies who
were also victims of bullying, and uninvolved students. Of the participants, 157 were in the
bullies group, 140 were in the victims group, 81 were in the bully/victims group, and 159 were in
the uninvolved students group. The results show that bullies reported a higher level of
externalizing problems, victims reported more internalizing symptoms, and bully/victims
reported both a higher level of externalizing problems and more internalizing symptoms.
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(Menesini, Modena, & Tani, 2009) These researchers had two goals in mind while doing this
experiment. The first goal was to analyze the relationship between involvement in bully/victim
roles and concurrent maladjustment symptoms in adolescent secondary school student. The
researchers hypothesized that bullies would show mainly externalizing symptoms, victims would
show internalizing symptoms, and bully/victims would show both types. (Menesini, Modena, &
Tani, 2009) Their hypothesis was indeed right. Their second goal was to examine the continuity
and discontinuity of the bully/victim role over time. They evaluated how the stability of that role
can relate to the nature and severity of the individual’s psychopathological symptoms. The
researchers predicted that stable bullies, victims, and bully/victims would show more severe
symptoms of being unable to adapt properly to your environment with resulting emotional
instability, than would adolescents assuming these roles at a later stage. The researchers found an
externalizing profile of bullies and no support for some of the more recent reports highlighting
comorbidity for internalizing problems in these individuals. The results these researchers have
found showed me that depending on one’s environment have a lot to do with higher rates of
bullying.
Study No. 2
Bullying might be of relevance for child psychiatry as it, apart from the suffering, might
be a cause of future mental and relational problems in the victims and a correlate or an
expression of mental problems in the bullies (Arvidsson, Broberg, Gillberg, & Ivarsson, 2005).
These Researchers studied adolescents in junior high school by having them complete a
questionnaire on bullying as it relates to victims, and to perpetrator status, suicide rates and
biographical data. Psychological symptoms were assessed by the Youth Self Report (YSR) and
the Depression Self-Rating Scale (DSRS) supplemented by school health officer’s blind
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assessments. The results from the questionnaire showed: bully 18%, victim 10%, and
bully/victim 9%. Bullies had mainly externalizing symptoms, which include delinquency and
aggression. Those of the bully/victim group had both externalizing and internalizing symptoms
as well as high levels of suicide. (Arvidsson, Broberg, Gillberg, & Ivarsson, 2005) Also from
the result, it showed that adolescent boys were more likely to be in the bully group and to have
attention problems. However, a substantial proportion of the adolescents in the victim group
were judged by school health officers, it resulted in them having psychiatric symptoms and to
socialize less. The results these researchers have found provided me with the knowledge of how
boys would be in the bully group. I would have not assumed that because it would seem more
likely that boys would act that way when they were children, but not as adolescents.
Study No. 3
Being teased on a regular basis due to appearances has been associated with psychiatric
morbidity in children and adolescents. The objective of this qualitative study was to explore the
experiences of teasing and bullying in patients with acne, psoriasis and eczema, and the role of
appearance-related teasing and bullying as mediators of psychological morbidity in these patients
(Adams, Heading, Magin, Pond, & Smith). The data collected consisted of 62 in-depth semistructured interviews with patients that have acne, psoriasis, or atopic eczema. They were
recruited from both specialists in dermatology and general practices. Bullying that consisted of
teasing and taunting was a considerable problem for patients with a significant minority of acne,
psoriasis and atopic eczema. For those who had suffered from the bullying and teasing were
linked in respondents’ accounts with psychological conditions that is the consequence of a
previous disease or injury, especially self-consciousness and effects on self-image and selfesteem. These researchers have found that bullying in teasing and taunting towards appearance
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may represent an underappreciated source of psychological morbidity in children and
adolescents with these common skin diseases (Adams, Heading, Magin, Pond, & Smith). The
results these researchers have found make complete sense to me because teasing someone of
their outward appearances will have major effects on that victim in the long run.
Conclusion
Some of the things I have learned from doing my research on bullying among adolescents
were that teens that live in a certain environment could be more likely to have higher bullying
rates than other places. This could be for many reasons. Another thing I have learned while doing
my research is the fact that teasing someone about their outward appearance could cause that
person to have severe damages to them, physically and mentally, which can include skin
diseases. I would like to know more about why certain places have higher rates of bullying than
others. The type of research that could be done in order to get my answer would be to visit the
places with either high or low rates of bullying and observe the teens in their own environments.
My reaction to the process of doing research and writing about it was typical because I knew
what bullying was about and the effect that come with it, but I was surprised when I found all the
research articles that have been done on bullying among adolescents; each one was different and
each study was different.
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References
Adams J., Heading G., Magin P., Pond D., Smith W. (2008). Experiences of Appearance-Related
Teasing and Bullying in Skin Diseases and Their Psychological Sequelae: Results of a
Qualitative Study. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 22(3), 430-436.
Arvidsson T., Broberg A. G., Gillberg C., Ivarsson T. (2005). Bullying in Adolescence:
Psychiatric Problems in Victims and Bullies as Measured by the Youth Self Report
(YSR) and the Depression Self-Rating Scale (DSRS). Nordic Journal of Psychiatry,
59(5), 365-373.
Berger K. S. (2010). Invitation to the life span. New York, NY: Worth Publishers
Menesini E., Modena M., Tani F. (2009). Bullying and Victimization in Adolescence:
Concurrent and Stable Roles and Psychological Health Symptoms. The Journal of
Genetic Psychology: Research and Theory on Human Development, 170(2), 115–133.
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