Bullying in Schools: Research on Causes and Prevention

Introduction

Bullying is not a new phenomenon in the social lives of school-aged children, but in recent years a great deal more attention has been paid to it because of the apparent rise in the number of publicized incidents. Teachers, parents, school administrators, community leaders, and social scientists are on alert not just for bullies, but also for methods of prevention. This paper uses scholarly research to review and critique the current problems related to bullying.

Bullying and Future Criminal Behavior

A peer-reviewed article in the journal Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health reports that there is a strong link between children who exhibit bullying behaviors in early childhood and their later involvement with the criminal justice system. In other words, young people who engage in bullying others may well expect to be on the wrong side of law enforcement later in life. The outcome of the authors' research shows that "the hazard of criminal offence for bullies is 1.9 times...that of non-bullies" (Jiang et al., 2011, p. 128). Moreover, the authors assert that criminal convictions for individuals who were bullies in their youth "were nearly twice as high as for non-bullies up to the child's 18th birthday" (Jiang et al., 2011, p. 128).

The authors of this study accessed — via court order — the criminal records of 260 bullies, and of those, 9.2% had at least one official criminal conviction before the age of 18. These 260 individuals were selected because earlier in their educational careers they had participated in an evidence-based program called "STOP NOW AND PLAN" (SNAP). The authors compared these individuals, who had been identified as bullies, against records of involvement with law enforcement — specifically the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services — to establish the link between bullying and the criminal justice system. The 9.2% were charged with a range of criminal activities, including "assault, breaking and entering, theft, weapon, mischief and drug offences" (Jiang et al., 2011, p. 132). Within the same research framework, 689 "non-bullies" were also evaluated; of those, just 5.1% were found to have had a criminal record prior to age 18 (Jiang et al., 2011, p. 132).

Three authors writing in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business report on a research project in which 100 children (half boys, half girls), 100 parents (59 fathers, 41 mothers), and 100 teachers (57 female, 43 male) were sent a questionnaire on responses to bullying. In tallying those questionnaires, the authors reported that: (a) children were "largely sympathetic towards victims"; (b) most parents were "largely sympathetic towards victims" and supportive of needed interventions but "less understanding towards bullies"; and (c) teachers demonstrated the "best understanding" regarding victims, interventions, and bullies (Hanif et al., 2011, p. 1055).

Attitudes of Children, Parents, and Teachers

The authors note that there is little surprise in finding that children, teachers, and parents are very sympathetic toward victims of bullying, nor in finding that parents, students, and teachers are mostly aligned with interventions designed to stop bullying. However, one unexpected finding was that parents were "less understanding towards bullies" — that is, a majority of parents in the study were "not happy to see things from the bully's point of view" (Hanif et al., 2011, p. 1057). If parents do not understand why bullies behave as they do, the authors posited that this might portend a lack of sympathy for victims. However, the research showed that the adults who were most supportive of victims were also "the most understanding towards bullies" (Hanif et al., 2011, p. 1057).

Another interesting finding was that seventy percent of parental respondents believed that "everybody should be able to stand up for themselves." Yet if children are expected to simply deal with bullies and stand up to them, what does that mean for those who are unable to do so? (Hanif et al., 2011, p. 1057). What the authors concluded from this research is that if a greater understanding of the differences among parents, teachers, and student victims can be achieved, more effective bullying interventions can be developed (Hanif et al., 2011, p. 1058).

An article in the Journal of Child and Family Studies (Estell et al., 2009) reported on a research project revealing that students with mild disabilities were more likely to be perceived as bullies by both their peers and their teachers. This data came from fifth-grade classroom research involving 484 students (258 girls, 226 boys); among those students were 369 general education students, 74 academically gifted students, and 41 students with mild disabilities (Estell et al., 2009, p. 136).

Conclusion

It seems that every month or so another study is published identifying which students are more likely to bully others and which are more likely to be bullied. Studies are important, but the bottom line is that it falls to schools — to teachers and administrators — to crack down on bullying and implement zero-tolerance policies for bullying behavior. Teachers are present in classrooms, hallways, and on playgrounds; if they are unaware of which students are bullying others, they are simply not attending to the social dynamics of the school environment. Teachers need training in order to fully understand the dynamics of bullying, which can involve nothing more than the social isolation of a particular student — with no physical aggression involved at all.