BULLYING
Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that
involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has
the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully
others may have serious, lasting problems.
In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and
include:
An Imbalance of Power: Kids who bully use their power—such as physical
strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity—to control or harm
others. Power imbalances can change over time and in different situations,
even if they involve the same people.
Repetition: Bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the potential to
happen more than once.
Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking
someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on
purpose.
Types of Bullying
There are three types of bullying:
Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things. Verbal bullying includes:
o Teasing
o Name-calling
o Inappropriate sexual comments
o Taunting
o Threatening to cause harm
Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting
someone’s reputation or relationships. Social bullying includes:
o Leaving someone out on purpose
o Telling other children not to be friends with someone
o Spreading rumors about someone
o Embarrassing someone in public
Physical bullying involves hurting a person’s body or possessions. Physical
bullying includes:
o Hitting/kicking/pinching
o Spitting
o Tripping/pushing
o Taking or breaking someone’s things
o Making mean or rude hand gestures
Participant roles
Everyone has the potential to bully others or be bullied. Individuals can take on various
roles in bullying, and play different roles in different contexts. Participant roles can
include someone who:
engages in bullying behaviour
is the target of the bullying behaviour
assists the bullying and actively joins in
encourages and gives approval to the bullying; they reinforce it through verbal
and non-verbal cues such as smiling, laughing or making comments and signal
it is acceptable
sees or knows about someone being bullied but for a range of reasons is
passive and does participate in the bullying or support the target
is an upstander. An upstander supports the student who is being bullied by
getting help from a teacher, distracting the students engaged in bullying
behaviour, supporting the student who is being bullied or directly intervening.
These students play an important protective role for peers who are experiencing
bullying, have greater empathetic skills and are often perceived by peers to be
positive role models. For more information on upstanders, refer to I have your
back.
Why do people bully?
There are different reasons why people bully, including:
wanting to dominate others and improve their social status
having low self-esteem and wanting to feel better about themselves
having a lack of remorse or failing to recognise their behaviour as a problem
feeling angry, frustrated or jealous
struggling socially
being the victim of bullying themselves
Some children who bully may enjoy getting their own way. Others may like conflict and
aggression. Some may be thoughtless, rather than deliberately hurtful. Some may have
difficulties with health, schoolwork and self-esteem. Some may be emotionally
neglected, bullied, abused or be experiencing violence themselves.
Bullies are more likely to have lifelong issues such as depression or problems with
aggression.
Children can take on different roles in different circumstances. Those who are bullied in
one situation may be the bully in another.
Where and When Bullying Happens
Bullying can occur during or after school hours. While most reported bullying
happens in the school building, a significant percentage also happens in places
like on the playground or the bus. It can also happen travelling to or from
school, in the youth’s neighborhood, or on the Internet.
Frequency of Bullying
There are two sources of federally collected data on youth bullying:
The 2019 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey
(National Center for Education Statistics and Bureau of Justice) indicates that,
nationwide, about 22% of students ages 12–18 experienced bullying.
The 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System(Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention) indicates that, nationwide, 15.0% of students in grades
9–12 report being bullied on school property in the 12 months preceding the
survey.
How can bullying be stopped?
If bullying is not challenged and stopped, it can contribute to a culture where bullying is
tolerated. If this occurs, everyone feels powerless to stop it.
If you are the person being bullied, you may need to use a few different strategies,
such as:
talking to a person you trust
taking to someone you trust with you when you seek help or talk to the bully
seeking help from an agency or support service, such as those listed below
If you feel safe and confident, you can approach the bully about why their
behaviour is not OK.
We have a responsibility to respect and protect the rights of others. A bystander is
someone who sees or knows about bullying that is happening to someone else.
