Outline of presentation
School Bullying:
Why it is not just child’s play.
By Kate Arciuli
Psychologist, Doctoral candidate
University of Sydney
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What is Bullying?
Different types of bullying behaviours
Negative effects of bullying
Prevalence rates
Questions and comments
What is bullying?
What is bullying?
Five general features:
1) intention to inflict harm
2) behaviour occurs repeatedly
3) victim doesn’t provoke the bully
4) occurs in social groups
5) involves an inbalance of power (either
real or perceived) (Greene, 2000)
• Different to peer “victimisation” and
“aggression”
Types of bullying
• Direct bullying
– openly confrontational behaviour
– includes physical, verbal and gestural
attacks
Some problems with definitions:
• Can happen away from peers (one-on-one)
• Is there always the intention to hurt?
(Require awareness of consequences? Could there be
other intentions, eg, popularity/acceptance/instrumental
gains?)
• How repetitive does it need to be? (no
defined cut off)
Verbal bullying
Direct: verbal insults, name
calling, sexual or racial comments,
verbal demands, (includes phone calls,
notes, texts, emails)
• Indirect bullying
– more subtle, can use third parties
– most common is relational bullying
Indirect: persuading third party to insult
someone else, spreading rumours,
whispering about others in front of them
Physical bullying
Direct: hitting, pushing/shoving, throwing things,
using a weapon, stealing possessions
Indirect: getting someone else to assault
someone, removing or hiding belongings
Relational bullying
Direct: ganging up against someone,
excluding people from the group, pressure
to do things to join the group
Indirect: persuading others to exclude
someone, silent treatment, isolating or
excluding someone
School Survey
Conducted by Dr Caroline Hunt, University of Sydney
Most frequent bullying behaviours
reported were verbal (name calling
teasing, spreading rumours) &
relational (turning friends against
others)
Gestural bullying
Direct: threatening or obscene gestures,
menacing stares
Indirect: deliberately turning away, ignoring
someone
Sexual harassment
• Subjecting a child to any act
of physical intimacy or assault
• Direct or indirect comments about
sexuality
• Any unwanted sexual gestures, words
or actions
– e.g., wolf whistling, ‘dacking’ underwear
Damaging effects of
being bullied
• Bullying in childhood predicts
emotional probs in adolescents
• Bullying is associated with:
– loneliness, poor academic achievement,
anxiety & depression, school refusal & less
close friendships
– long-term - victims of school bullying more
depressed and lower self-esteem
Prevalence
Impact on children
who bully others
• Engaging in bullying is related to:
– Higher levels of anxiety & depression
– Increased crime and antisocial behaviours
– More referrals to psychological services
• Most severely affected are children who
are both bullies & victims
Gender & bullying
• More boys are involved in bullying
• Boys:
– both direct physical/verbal & relational
– bully both boys and girls
• Girls
– more relational/indirect bullying than direct
– mainly bully other girls
Bullying “roles”
• Traditionally: “bullies”, “victims” &
“not involved”
• However, new category “bully/victims”
• Other classifications include roles of peers:
– “ringleaders” (initiating bully and organiser of
group)
– “followers” (who join in)
– “reinforcers” (reinforce more passively but do not
actively join in)
– “outsiders” (completely non-involved)
– “defenders” (who help the victim)
• Roles stable over time
• WHO - bullying rates from
1% - 50% across countries
• Australian stats: 1/5 males and 1/6
females get bullied (Rigby, 1997)
• Other sources suggest:
– 8-24% of children get bullied
– 5-19% of children bully others
– 5-22% both bully and are bullied
• Children may under report experiences
– so rates may be higher?
Age and bullying
• Bullying generally declines w age
• Highest b/w 9-15yrs (peak in early high
school years)
• Physical bullying decreases and relational
and indirect bullying increases with age
Bullies & Victims – same pupils?
• Prevalence varies from
0.4 – 29% (Chien, 2000)
• Olweus et al – small overlap
– Boys more likely bully/victims
• 10% of girl and 20% of boy victims were also
bullies
– Big age difference
• 50% of bullies also victims (younger age) vs
10% of bullies also victims (older age group).
Prevalence
(Preliminary Findings)
• N = 280 (126 males and
154 females; Yrs 7-10)
• Boy sample much higher rates
• 70% been bullied at least 1 or 2x
• 26% been bullied 2-3x/mth or more (victims)
• 58% bullied others at least 1 or 2x
• 17% bullied others 2-3x/mth or more (bullies)
• 21% not involved at all
• 66% not involved or only 1 or 2x (77% for
girls)
School Bullying:
Why it is not just child’s play.
By Kate Arciuli
Psychologist, Doctoral candidate
University of Sydney
Bullies & Victims –
same pupils?
My findings (N = 280):
• 1.7% bullied only (2-3x/mth or more)
• 4% victims only (2-3x/mth or more)
• 10% victims and bullies (each 2-3x/mth
or more)
• Much higher for boys than girls