Bullying by definition: an examination of definitional components of bullying

Lack of definitional consensus remains an important unresolved issue within bullying research. This study examined the ability of definitional variables to predict overall level of victimisation (distress, power inequity, and provocation as predictors) and bullying (intention to harm, power inequity, and provocation as predictors) in 246 Australian university students. All variables were measured using the Victimisation and Bullying Inventory (VBI), with behaviour assessed separately for tertiary institution, workplace and home contexts. Regression analysis revealed that, as expected, higher levels of distress predicted higher levels of victimisation (in all contexts) and higher levels of intention to harm predicted higher levels of engagement in bullying (in work and home contexts). Challenging definitional theory, bullying was reported as most commonly occurring between two equals, from both the victim and bully perspective, and individuals who bullied others blamed the victim for provoking the behaviour twice as often as victims felt that they had provoked it.     

Preschool children's school adjustment: indicators of behaviour problems,gender, and peer victimisation

The relationships among school adjustment, victimisation, and gender were investigated with 284 Turkish children aged between five and six years. Teacher Rating Scale of School Adjustment, The Preschool Behaviour Questionnaire, and Peer Victimisation Scale were used in this study. Analyses indicated that children's behaviour problems and victimisation variables were significant predictors of the school adjustment of children while controlling for gender.     

Mediating and moderating role of attributional style in the association between victimisation and wellbeing

This study examined whether attributional style for negative events plays a mediating or moderating role in the association between victimisation by bullying and psychological distress in young adults. A total of 127 undergraduate students completed the Attributional Style Questionnaire, a newly developed Victimisation and Bullying Inventory and the Psychological Distress subscale from the Mental Health Inventory. As expected, the tendency to attribute negative events to internal, stable and global causes predicted higher psychological distress. There was also a positive association between extent of victimisation and psychological distress. Although attributional style did not mediate in this relationship, there was evidence of moderation. Individuals with more negative attributional styles showed a clear association between victimisation and psychological distress, while those with less negative styles showed no association. These results suggest that a tendency towards a negative attributional style may increase the risk of psychological distress in victims of bullying.     

Preventing and reducing school violence: development of a Student and Family Office—a pilot study

This study introduces a pilot project—the creation of a Student and Family Office to reduce school violence—and suggests the benefits of the combined use of different strategies to decrease peer aggression and victimisation. The programme was implemented over a two-and-a-half-year period and included 132 Portuguese adolescents attending the third cycle of basic education. A considerable number of problematic situations, previously reported by students, changed after SFO intervention.. The results suggest that the local (universal and multimodal) intervention programme contributed to a decrease in harassment, coercion and aggressiveness, victimisation and reactive overt aggression rates, and also promoted the social and personal skills essential for successful interpersonal dynamics and peer conflict interventions. The implications for practice are discussed.     

The mediational role of posttraumatic stress in the relationship between domestic violence exposure and peer victimisation: a Cambodian sample

Research demonstrates that children exposed to domestic violence experience a myriad of internalising and externalising symptoms. The current study examines this pathway within a Cambodian sample, specifically determining if the effect of witnessing domestic violence on the child’s tendency to bully or to be bullied is mediated by symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The PTSD Checklist – Civilian Version, a revised version of a12-item bullying and victimisation questionnaire, and the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale were administered to 206 high school students in Phnom Penh. A significant mediational effect of PTSD symptoms was found for victimisation (being bullied); no such mediational model was supported for bullying as the outcome variable. However, controlling for emotional, physical, and sexual child abuse resulted in the mediation effect being non-significant. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Bully/victim problems among Greek pupils with special educational needs: associations with loneliness and self‐efficacy for peer interactions

This study explores the prevalence of different types of bullying and victimisation among Greek pupils receiving special education support provision. Associations of these types with feelings of loneliness and perceived social efficacy for peer interactions are also examined. The sample consisted of 178 students of fifth and sixth primary school grades who participated in pull‐out special education delivery programmes. Participants were found to be actively involved in both bullying and victimisation, with higher rates in victimisation. Statistically significant gender and disability differences in bullying and loneliness were identified. Both bullying and victimisation were associated with loneliness/social dissatisfaction, and self‐efficacy for peer interactions. Moreover, our data provided evidence that bully/victims may be a distinct group in terms of their increased levels of loneliness. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for promoting children with special educational needs and disabilities social inclusion.     

Validation of the perceived school bullying severity scale

Research on school bullying has tended to focus on its prevalence or frequency while ignoring its perceived severity. This study attempted to construct a perceived School Bullying Severity Scale (SBSS). The original 24-item instrument, revised from the Victim Scale of the School Bullying Scales, covered the four categories of physical, verbal, relational and cyber bullying. The partial credit model was used to conduct Rasch analysis with ConQuest software on data derived from two samples of Taiwanese secondary school students. Sample 1 and sample 2 consisted of 605 and 869 students, respectively. Three items were deleted after examining the quality of the data from sample 1. The reliability and validity of the 21 items on the final scale were verified using data from sample 2. Results demonstrated the reliability and validity of information collected by the SBSS. This study also found that secondary school students rated relational and cyber bullying as more severe than physical and verbal bullying. Differences between teachers’ and students’ perspectives on the perceived severity of various bullying behaviours as well as implications for preventing and intervening in bullying are discussed.     

Maladjustment of bully-victims: validation with three identification methods

Although knowledge on the psychosocial (mal)adjustment of bully-victims, children who bully others and are victimised by others, has been increasing, the findings have been principally gained utilising a single method to identify bully-victims. The present study examined the psychosocial adjustment of bully-victims (as compared with pure bullies and pure victims) identified by Olweus’ global measures, peer nominations and a profile method based on Olweus’ multiple measures of bullying/victimisation forms. The sample included 17,586 students from grades 3 to 8 (9–15 years old) in Finland. Bully-victims formed the smallest group, whose subjective experience of maladjustment differed from that of the bullies, rather than that of the victims. Both the prevalence and the relative maladjustment of bully-victims varied across identification methods, gender and school level.     

Dropping out because of the others: bullying among the students of Estonian vocational schools

Although it is arguably a fundamental democratic or human right of a child to feel safe at school, many children and adolescents have to face peer victimisation in schools on a daily basis, and occasionally through several levels of education. Long-term victimisation may have detrimental consequences for the victim, including a negative effect on educational attainment. This study provides an insight into the lives of five young people who have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out from Estonian vocational schools because of peer victimisation. The study is based on in-depth face-to-face personal interviews. Four superordinate themes with associated subthemes are addressed: ‘experience of victimisation’, ‘social context’, ‘lack of support’, and ‘quitting as a survival strategy’. The stories of the bullying victims reveal how the victimisation has shaped them and their educational pathways by compelling them to discontinue their vocational training.     

Bullying and Victimisation among Taiwanese Students in Special Schools

This study examined the prevalence of bullying and victimisation among students in special schools in Taiwan. The sample included 140 students with various disabilities, aged 12–18, from 10 special schools throughout Taiwan. Trained interviewers conducted face-to-face surveys using structured questionnaires. Results show that 31.8% of students in special schools experienced peer victimisation within the past year, while 26.5% of students had bullied others during that period. While the findings did not yield gender differences, students in junior high grades tended to report more victimisation experiences than did their senior high counterparts. Severity of disability was positively associated with both bullying and being bullied; however, no difference was found regarding types of disability. Delinquency was positively associated with student bullying and victimisation. Students who suffered victimisation also reported a higher number of suicide attempts. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.