Kristin Carbone-Lopez, PhD Criminology and Criminal Justice University of Missouri, St. Louis

Bullying victimization:

What is bullying? How do we define it? How common is bullying? How many children are victims of some sort of bullying? What are some of the risk factors for being bullied? What are some of the consequences of bullying victimization? How can we respond to bullying? As practitioners? As school officials? As parents?

bullying long considered a minor issue, but taken more seriously today MYTH – bullying always involves physical aggression or violence. REALITY – bullying can include many different types of behavior, including physical violence, verbal abuse, and even “cyber” bullying.

3 criteria, as outlined by Olweus (1993) intentional harm done to a person either physically, emotionally or relationally victimization that occurs repeatedly over time a power imbalance between victim and offender forms include: physical – hitting, kicking, shoving, theft, threats, etc. verbal – teasing, derogatory comments, bad names relational – “social aggression”, exclusion of peers, withdrawal of affection, threatening to tell lies or rumors cyber – bullying through electronic means

unique characteristics: anonymity, accessibility, punitive fears, bystanders, lack of inhibition six common forms: harassment – repeated rude/offensive messages denigration – distributing false/negative information about a person flaming – online “fighting” impersonation – using someone else’s account to post material outing/trickery – sharing someone’s secret information cyber-stalking – repeated threatening messages MYTH – cyber-bullying is often a “gateway” to other forms of bullying REALITY – actually, typically the reverse; begins with face-to-face encounters and may progress to cyber forms

widely varying estimates, in part because of differing definitions yet, consensus that it is a serious issue 2005–06 school year there were an estimated 54.8 million students about 1.5 million victims of nonfatal crimes at school, including 868,100 thefts and 628,200 violent crimes this translates into some 4% of students age 12–18 reported being victimized—either physically or through theft of their belongings—at school during the previous 6 months MYTH – bullying is a small problem in our schools compared to other forms of violence REALITY – children are far more likely to experience bullying than physical violence or theft of property at school in fact, school-based violence has decreased over the past 10 years

as many as 27% of school-age children are bullied by peers 17% of students in grades 6-10 were bullied “sometimes” with 8% experiencing bullying once a week approximately 1 in 10 school-age children are repeatedly victimized by peers; many more are victimized less regularly cyber-bullying is also prevalent a national survey of 770 youth found that 20% of youth ages had been bullied through electronic means an online survey of 1,378 youth found that 32% of boys and 36% of girls had been victims of cyber-bullying, generally in a chat room or by computer text message (Hinduja & Patchin, 2008)

MYTH – there is a “victim personality” REALITY – not only personality characteristics, but situational and social risk factors are related to risk of bullying individual characteristics – passivity/shyness, ADHD, size (especially weight) MYTH – boys are more likely than girls to be bullied REALITY – boys & girls are nearly equally likely to be bullied, yet experience different forms bullying is not distributed evenly across the youth population – it varies by sex, race, and age

sex – boys at greater risk of physical forms of bullying, while girls equally or more likely to experience verbal, relational, and sexual forms of bullying age – bullying tends to decrease with age; the use of physical aggression often changes to more passive, verbal forms victimization may decrease more quickly for girls, except in case of relational aggression

race – inconsistent patterns may interact with gender – girls of color may be at greater risk of all forms of bullying (Sawyer et al., 2008) in-group bias effect – members of the minority group within diverse schools may be at greater risk school factors size of school, presence of graffiti, punitive teacher attitudes, inadequate adult supervision, school disadvantage/poverty

MYTH – bullying is a normal part of childhood and the experience builds character REALITY – evidence for consequences on emotions and behaviors MYTH – many childhood victims of bullying become violent later on REALITY – most victims of bullying are more likely to suffer in silence than retaliate

school-related: reduce willingness to attend school, lower academic achievement psychosocial: low self-esteem, depression and anxiety, avoidance behavior behavioral: poor social adjustment, behavior problems, delinquency, drug use differences in outcome by gender, type of bullying girls may suffer a broader range of and more negative consequences than boys

Do different forms of bullying victimization have different effects? Do these effects differ by gender? (Carbone-Lopez et al., 2010) used data collected from 15 schools in 9 cities, in 4 states; a total of1,450 students 53% were female; average age was 12 years; 50% Hispanic, 37% white, and 13% Black differentiate between: physical versus indirect forms of bullying no bullying, intermittent, and repeated victimization experiences

physical forms of bullying 67% no victimization 28% intermittent victimization 5% repeat victimization indirect forms of bullying 29% no victimization 38% intermittent victimization 32% repeat victimization

externalizing outcomes (delinquency, gang membership) intermittent physical victimization increased boys’ delinquency and their gang membership both forms of bullying increased girls’ delinquency but only indirect bullying increased gang membership internalizing outcomes (self-esteem, drug use) intermittent physical victimization increased boys’ drug use, but bullying had no impact on boys’ self esteem repeated indirect bullying increased girls’ drug use, but reduced their self esteem

MYTH – bullying only impacts the bullies and their victims REALITY – bullying has a much broader impact bystanders and witnesses may have similar consequences; bullying may contribute to an overall feeling of non-safety, powerlessness entire school community may be affected – a climate of fear & disrespect

prevention and intervention efforts are clearly important, yet existing efforts largely focus only on physical forms of bullying recommendations for schools adopt evidence-based programs reduce existing bullying problems, prevent new problems from occurring, and foster better peer relations foster an environment conducive to reporting teachers learn to spot bullying, to intervene immediately, and report all incidents to administrators

parents bully-proof our children – talk with them about bullying and its effects, teach them to react appropriate community increase awareness in the community, bring together all stakeholders to campaign against bullying

thank you