Until relatively recent, the topic of bullying of school children by other school children featured briefly, if at all, social or developmental psychology. Aggression by children has always been a topic mined by psychology, but within time the context of schooling it was largely ignored. In part of Europe, however, there has been considerable research on bullying in the workplace: why bullies do it and how they get away with it. This research promoted others to explore the incidence, cause and prevention of bullying in school and an extensive research now exists in countries such as Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and the USA.
How common is bullying?
The evidence of bullying in secondary schools is high and is regarded by children themselves as a common problem. According to nicolaides et.al(2002), bullying is a form of aggressive behavior that causes injury or distress to the individual to whom it is directed. This aggression can be physical ( actual bodily violence), verbal or psychological ( such as social exclusion). The relationship between the bully and the victim of a bully is also unequal: perceived power tends to reside with the bully and bullies usually repeated act against their victims. The victim of a bully, therefore, is likely to be bullied on more than one occasion.
In a survey of bullying in English schools, Whitney and smith (1993) reported the general incidence of bullying, who does the bullying and who become the victim. The study found that :
- 10-27% of children reported being the victim of bullying at some time during the school time
- 6-12% reported taking part in bullying at least once
- Self reports of bullying and being bullied declined as the children grew older (from 8 to 16)
- Boys were twice, and sometimes three, times as likely to be bullied as were girls.
- 35 % of bullies were spoken to by their teachers about their conduct
- 30-35 % of victim spoke to teachers about their being bullied
- 60% of children reported disliked bullying
- 20% of children indicated that they would be willing to join in with bullying
Transitional life events, social dominance and bullying
Some psychologist have suggested that bullying becomes more prevalent during early adolescence and during transitional periods in the children’s lives, for specific reasons. For example, aggression in early adolescence is viewed more positively by children’s peer than it is later in adolescent. According to Pellegrinin and long( 2002), certain factors promote an increase in aggression at this time. They point to the obvious physical changes that occur, especially in boys. Hormonal changes lead to body size increase, the beginning of a sexual interest in the opposite sex and the visible expression of secondary sexual characteristics which mark the onset of young adulthood,
The increase in body size, some researchers argue, leads to boys reviewing their position in their social group. One way of expressing this dominance is to use aggression, usually with the approval of peers. Also note that, in addiction to establishing social dominance, young adolescents also undergo a physical transition in their lives: moving school, this move appears to coincide with an increase in antisocial behaviour. In primary school, children are taught in well established, close, friendly group. The move to secondary school usually leads to the break-up of this close group and the child has to find new friends in a much bigger environment. Pellegrini and Long argue that if bullying is a way of establishing social dominance, the aggression should increase during this transition from primary to secondary school. Once the social group are established, the incidence of bullying should decrease.
To see if the patterns of bullying did change during this transition, the researchers followed 129 North American boys and girls from the final year in primary to the second year in secondary school. The researcher asked them about their bullying experiences, experiences of being the victim of bullying, and asked them to keep daily dairies in which they would record any example of bullying/being bullied. The teachers measured the degree of dominance and aggression they absorbed in the children and the children were also asked to record instances of bullying and cooperation they observe in their peers. Measures were taken at three points: the final year of primary and the first and second years of secondary school.
Bullying and aggression increased in the initial period but then decreased. Boys were more likely than girls to be bullied and more likely to view bullying and aggression positively in the early stage of adolescence. After the transition to middle school, aggression decreased and dominance in social groups increased, providing some indirect evidence for the hypothesis that aggression is used to establish dominance but once dominance is established aggression is unnecessary.
What makes a bully?
Are there personality characteristics that are specific to bullies? In an early study of teacher’s views of bullies and victims, the personalities of victims were well described but the characters of bullies less well described. The school bully is likely to cold, manipulative and very social adept. This is one reason why they are able to convince others to condone, endorse or join in with the bullying. To test whether bullies are sensitive to emotional and social events, Sutton et.al (1999) first administered a questionnaire to 193 English school children aged between 7 and 11 years to determined who were bullies, followers, defenders of the victim, victims, and who did not get involved in bullying. The children then participated in an experience in which they were read elven short stories and asked questions about these stories and asked question about these stories which relied on an awareness of social cognition and manipulation. For example, in one of the studies. Mike has stomach ache but knows that if his mother sees him in pain, he will not be allowed out to play. He asked his mother if he can. The participants were shown four pictures of mike’s face and asked:
1) which facial expression represents how he really feels ( the control question)
2) which facial expression he shows to his mother when he asked her if he can go out ( the experimental question)
The researchers found that bullies who initiated aggression were more accurate in answering social manipulation questions than were bullies who helped or supported the ringleader bullies, the victim, or the defenders. This finding suggests that the bully is not a social inept individual but one who is aware of the power of manipulation.
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