Bullying and Cyberbullying: Causes, Effects, and Prevention

Introduction: Prevalence of School Bullying

Nearly 30% — or approximately 5.7 million — of United States teenagers are estimated to have been involved in an incident of school-related bullying, either as the target, the bully, or both. A recent national survey of students in grades 6 through 10 revealed that nearly 13% of students reported bullying other children, 11% reported being victimized by bullies, and an additional 6% indicated they had been both perpetrators and victims of bullying (Nansel, Overpeck, Pilla, Ruan, Simons-Morton, & Scheidt, 2001). Estimates indicate that once every seven seconds, a child is the victim of bullying in a United States school. According to a study completed in 2001, 9% of all males and 7% of all females ages 12–18 reported experiencing bullying during the previous six months.

According to the 2003 National Center for Education Statistics report on school violence, there were significant increases in the percentage of students who were victims of bullying in 2001 compared to 1999. While crime has declined in recent years, bullying is one of the few school-related issues that has shown continual increase in both intensity and prevalence (Ericson, 2001). During the same time period studied, the percentage of students who reported an increase in bullying was evident across all ethnic and racial groups with the exception of Black students. Approximately 6% of Black students in both 1999 and 2001 indicated they had been bullied. Between 1999 and 2001, the percentage of students bullied increased from 5% to 9% for Whites, from 4% to 8% for Hispanic students, and from 3% to 7% for other non-Hispanic students (NCES, 2003). Since the time of these studies, the national rates of prevalence and incidence have increased continuously and significantly.

Defining and Understanding Bullying

In order to understand the implications, efficaciousness, perceptions, and pervasiveness of bullying, it is important to identify and define the characteristics of this phenomenon. Doing so helps recognize shortcomings in bullying prevention, social-emotional education, and current support initiatives. Various definitions of bullying have been proposed by theorists and researchers, but commonalities across these definitions are underscored by four relatively consistent variables: diversity of manifestation, intentionality, repetition, and imbalance of power (Schoen & Schoen, 2010). According to Schoen and Schoen in their article "Bullying and Harassment in the United States," bullying carries a purposeful intent to embarrass, harm, and/or offend the victim; involves repeated acts of aggression toward an individual or group; involves an imbalance of status or power, whether perceived or realized; and the type of aggression can vacillate from direct to indirect (p. 68). Direct bullying consists of verbal and physical assaults, including scorning, humiliating, threatening, hitting, kicking, and punching, whereas indirect bullying includes acts of intimidation through exclusion or gesturing. The spreading of rumors and insults via email and text messaging have also been classified as indirect forms of bullying (Schoen & Schoen, 2010). Although cyberbullying is considered a relatively new component of bullying, harassment through multimedia formats has the potential to produce profound psychological damage (Beatty & Alexeyex, 2008). In summary, "bullying consists of a series of repeated, intentional cruel incidents between the same children who are primarily in the same bully and victim roles" (Hoover & Stenhjem, 2003, p. 2).

The pervasiveness of bullying has been documented across all academic levels according to recent studies by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP, 2006; Schoen & Schoen, 2010). Verbal bullying has been demonstrated as a pervasive phenomenon in elementary, middle, and high school, while incidents of physical bullying occur at greater proportions in middle school (Cohn & Cantor, 2003). Characteristics such as perceived helplessness, weakness, and shyness have been significantly correlated with victimization; however, the debate over risk factors and bullying status persists (Khosropour & Walsh, 2001). Researchers have identified rumors, exclusion, name-calling, racial slurs, material theft or damage, and physical aggression as the most frequent forms of bullying (Dixon, 2006). Researchers have also noted gender differences in how bullying transpires and who enacts the offense. Olweus (2003) determined that girls were primarily bullied by both girls and boys, whereas boys were primarily victimized by other boys. Moreover, boys tend to be the recipients of more physical assault and aggression, while girls are primarily the victims of non-physical aggression. Overall, boys have been identified as both the deliverer and object of bullying at a higher frequency than girls (Nansel et al., 2003).

Olweus (1993) posits that only physical weakness is consistently associated with those who are victimized; however, more recent empirical evidence suggests that 67% of children with special needs are bullied in mainstream settings, compared to their counterparts who are not physically handicapped (Beatty & Alexeyex, 2008). Nationally, bullying occurs across racial groups, socioeconomic backgrounds, and geographical locations (Nansel et al., 2003). According to Beatty and Alexeyex (2008) in their article "The Problem of School Bullies: What the Research Tells Us," victims are most often chosen from the chronological peer group of the bully. Researchers consider it reasonable that this selection process occurs as it does, since bullies tend to target those with whom they have the most peer-to-peer interaction. Bullying transpires most often in places with less supervision, such as hallways, restrooms, and lunchrooms, and tends to escalate on playgrounds and in other informal settings. Victims in these settings tend to appear more submissive or passive than others in their peer cohort (Olweus, 2003). Individuals who are targeted often present as more vulnerable to attack, exhibiting characteristics such as insecurity, unhappiness, and tendencies toward anxiety, sensitivity, or withdrawal (Schoen & Schoen, 2010). According to Pepler and Craig (1995), "victims of bullying tend to be victimized over time, entering a dangerous cycle of abuse" (p. 33).