Bullying Article

Bullying Prevention and Intervention

Bullying—What is it?
The term “bullying” generally is used to describe unwanted, intentional, aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance between the bully and the victim (Olweus, 1993). The power difference between bullies and victims can take many forms. For example, a bully may be physically stronger, display more adroit interpersonal skills, have a higher social status, be more tech savvy, or have any other quality that gives them an edge or allows them to dominate a victim.
Bullying can be subdivided into various forms that include physical aggression (e.g., hitting, kicking, shoving), verbal aggression (e.g., name calling, teasing, threatening), and relational aggression (e.g., social exclusion, spreading rumors). Although many people believe that boys are more likely to engage in physical forms of bullying and girls are more likely to engage in relational forms, research indicates that boys and girls both engage in relational aggression to similar degrees yet boys are more likely to engage in physical aggression (Card, Stucky, Sawalani, & Little, 2008). Lastly, with the exception of physical aggression, these forms of aggressive behavior also can be perpetrated in cyberspace (i.e., cyberbullying) and via the use of cyber technology (e.g., computers, smart phones, video games).
Prevalence of Bullying, Harassment, and Peer Victimization
Research indicates that bullying is the most prevalent form of aggressive or violent behavior that occurs in schools (Ross, 2002). Even though specific prevalence estimates vary considerably across studies, large and extensive epidemiological studies generally find that 10-28% of students report being bullied by their peers and that about half of students will be bullied at some point during their educational career (Nansel, Overpeck, Pilla, Ruan, Simons-Morton, & Scheidt, 2001; Roberts, Zhang, Truman, & Snyder, 2012). In addition, research indicates that

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