Exploring Adolescents’ Talk About Bullying on an Online Message Board: Broadening and Complicating Understandings of Victimization

Current definitions of bullying, crafted by policymakers and researchers, raise questions about the ways in which adult constructions of bullying reflect, or fail to reflect, the lived realities of adolescents. In particular, the narrow scope of “bullying,” as currently defined, may over-simplify adolescents’ experiences with relational aggression, which often sit in the space between bullying, discrimination, and harassment. This study investigates adolescents’ talk about bullying on an online message board, as one effort to better understand whether adolescents’ constructions of bullying are aligned with those of researchers and policymakers, and where these youth constructions may overlap with ideas about discrimination and harassment. Conducting a content analysis of data from an online, teen message board, we find that participants frequently use the term bullying to describe adult or familial aggression, and often describe bullying behaviors in ways that reflect elements of discrimination and harassment. We conclude with suggestions for future research and practical approaches that might better bridge gaps between research and practice.     

20 Years of workplace bullying research: A review of the antecedents and consequences of bullying in the workplace

Research on workplace bullying, which has just recently passed the 20 year mark, has grown significantly over this duration of time. We provide an extensive review of the extant literature, with a focus on the antecedents and consequences of workplace bullying. We organize our review of the extant literature by level of analysis, which allows us to understand workplace bullying from each major level of analysis, while simultaneously identifying those levels at which research has been sparse. We then develop a conceptual model based on our review that similarly depicts theoretical and/or empirical findings from the extant literature, but in a succinct manner. Based on our review and conceptual model, we identify and highlight a number of key avenues for future research that will help extend the current workplace bullying literature.     

Perceptions of adolescent bullying: Attributions of blame and responsibility in cases of cyber‐bullying

Cyber‐bullying (where victims are targeted via online social networking or other electronic means) has gained increased attention in research and the broadcast media, but previous research has not investigated attribution of blame in such cyber‐bullying events. This experiment hypothesized that participants would assign higher ratings of blame to bullying perpetrators when the bullying situations were depicted as having highly foreseeable outcomes (vs. unforeseeable outcomes), and as occurring in school (vs. online). In addition, a significant interaction was predicted between outcome foreseeability and bullying situation, with highly foreseeable in‐school events being rated as the most predictable and attributable to the bully's actions. One‐hundred sixty‐three participants completed surveys containing demographic items, items regarding their past experiences of victimization, and one of four randomly‐assigned vignettes detailing a bullying situation (which participants rated). While hypotheses regarding outcome foreseeability were supported, no cyber‐bullying vs. in‐school main effects (or corresponding interaction effects) were detected. Implications for future research and practice, as well as study limitations, are discussed.     

Birds of a feather bully together: Group processes and children's responses to bullying

Recent research has shown that a group‐level analysis can inform our understanding of school bullying. The present research drew on social identity theory and intergroup emotion theory. Nine‐ to eleven‐year olds were randomly assigned to the same group as story characters who were described as engaging in bullying, as being bullied, or as neither engaging in bullying nor being bullied. Participants read a story in which a bully, supported by his or her group, was described as acting unkindly towards a child in a different group. Gender of protagonists and the bully's group norm (to be kind or unkind to other children) were varied. Identification affected responses to the bullying incident, such that those who identified more highly with each group favoured this group. Moreover, children's group membership predicted the group‐based emotions they reported, together with the associated action tendencies. Implications for understanding the processes underlying bullying behaviour are discussed.     

Why Does Interactional Justice Promote Organizational Loyalty,Job Performance,and Prevent Mental Impairment? The Role of Social Support and Social Stressors

Using social exchange theory as a conceptual framework, we investigated the relationship between interactional justice and the outcomes organizational loyalty (affective commitment, turnover intentions), perceived job performance (self-rated performance, personal accomplishment), and mental impairment (cognitive irritation, emotional exhaustion) in an online survey of 218 employees working in the field of computer technology. Specifically, we predicted that interactional justice would heighten the quality of social exchange relationships and therefore expected perceived social support (POS) and bullying to mediate the proposed relationships. We tested our hypotheses applying a latent structural equation model. Our findings revealed that POS mediated the relationship between interactional justice and organizational loyalty, whereas bullying mediated the relationship between interactional justice and mental impairment. Practical implications are discussed concerning how to foster interactional justice and POS and how to weaken bullying behavior.     

Understanding and Combating School‐Based Bullying From an Individual‐Level Perspective: A Review

Bullying is an ongoing problem in our schools with a significant psychological impact on young people. Despite evidence that school‐based bullying is related to a range of individual, social and environmental factors, the majority of interventions are focused on a “whole of school” approach. Whole‐school interventions have been shown to be successful in reducing rates of bullying, but it is argued that a focus on individual factors, specifically those that are amenable to change, will add to these “whole of school” effects. It is argued that interventions that target factors such as internalising symptoms, externalising behaviours, friendship quality and self‐esteem will help children to build resilience against the bullying behaviours of their peers, and further reduce the incidence of bullying, when applied both at a preventative and treatment intervention level.     

Parent Retrospective Recollections of Bullying and Current Views, Concerns, and Strategies to Cope with Children’s Bullying

In this study, parent history of bullying was examined in terms of general involvement with bullying, specific types of bullying experienced, level of hurtfulness associated with the experience, and when bullying occurred. Parent current views, levels of concern, and strategies used to cope with bullying were also evaluated. Finally, the aforementioned constructs were analyzed for existing predictive relationships. Two-hundred-sixty parents from a public school district in the Northeast completed an online survey. Results revealed that 90.3 % of parents reported seeing and/or engaging in bullying during their youth. Few parents reported involvement as a bully, but comparable numbers of participants indicated being victimized or acting as a bystander. Additional findings suggest that a parent’s historical involvement with bullying was predictive of some of their current views, level of concern, and strategies implemented in association with bullying. Future research should attempt to account for the remaining variance among these variables. Implications for parents and school personnel are described, with recommendations for the increase of involvement by parents in anti-bullying initiatives.     

Bullying and cyberbullying in adulthood and the workplace

Two studies generated profiles of cyberbullying/cyberincivility and traditional bullying/incivility in adults, particularly within the workplace. In Study 1, 20% of 3,699 participants had the majority of cyberbullying victimization and 7.5% had the majority of traditional bullying victimization occur in adulthood, with 30% saying they were bullied at work. Relationships between bullying and negative outcomes were found. Because of the clear evidence of bullying and cyberbullying in the workplace in Study 1, Study 2 addressed the relationship of these constructs to workplace incivility. Workplace face-to-face incivility and bullying were related among 321 participants, as were workplace cyberbullying and cyberincivility. Face-to-face incivility was more common than online incivility, face-to-face bullying, or online bullying, yet all four behaviors were associated with negative outcomes. Differences in intentionality, acceptability, and severity were observed, with workplace face-to-face bullying perceived as the most severe and having the greatest intentionality to harm. These results emphasize the importance of studying bullying among adults, and highlight the conceptual independence of bullying and incivility. Correlates of workplace aggression are discussed using job demands-resources theory.     

Bullying is detrimental to health, but all bullying behaviours are not necessarily equally damaging

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of 'negative behaviours' and 'bullying' in the workplace on the health and well-being of employees, to what extent the effects remain beyond the period of the experience as well as the extent to which they affect third-parties or witnesses. The paper also raises the question whether some behaviours associated with bullying may be more damaging than others. Potential sex differences and differences between occupational contexts are considered. To achieve these aims, a national cross-sectional study (N=5,388) was carried out. In absolute terms those who labelled their experience as bullying had substantially worse health than those who were not bullied. However, counter to what was expected, stronger associations were found between negative behaviour and adverse health effects than for self-reported (self-labelled) bullying and health. Previous targets as well as witnesses also reported worse health than those who were neither bullied nor had witnessed bullying. The findings also imply that some negative behaviours were more difficult to deal with than others. In all cases differences between the sexes and between occupational contexts emerged.     

Developmental relations between ADHD symptoms and bullying perpetration and victimization in adolescence

It has previously been hypothesized that individuals with elevated attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms are at greater risk of bullying perpetration and victimization. Using autoregressive latent trajectory models with structured residuals (ALT‐SR) and four waves (ages 11, 13, 15, and 17) of longitudinal data from the normative z‐proso study (n = 1526, 52% male), we evaluated the developmental relations between ADHD and bullying using both self‐ and teacher‐reported ADHD symptom data. Analyses suggested that ADHD symptoms primarily increase the risk of bullying perpetration, with a within‐person effect of ADHD symptoms on bullying perpetration symptoms identified across ages 13–15 (β = .13) and ages 15–17 (β = .19) based on self‐reported ADHD symptoms and a similar effect identified across ages 11–13 (β = .24) and 13–15 (β = .29) based on teacher‐reported inattention symptoms. There were also some indications of reciprocal effects and effects involving victimization that merit further exploration in future research. Results imply that the content of bullying intervention and prevention programs should take account of ADHD symptoms to ensure that those with elevated symptoms can benefit as much as their typically developing peers. This will involve addressing bullying perpetration that may reflect impulsive/reactive aggression and impaired social skills rather than instrumental aggression. Further, programs should go beyond classical curriculum/classroom‐based delivery to ensure that individuals with elevated ADHD symptoms can be successfully engaged.     

Cyber- and face-to-face bullying: who crosses over?

A total of 3956 children aged 12–13 years who completed the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC Wave 5) were studied about their experiences of traditional face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying in the last month. In terms of prevalence, sixty percent of the sample had been involved in traditional bullying as the victim and/or the offender whereas eight percent had been involved in cyberbullying as victim and/or offender. The vast majority (95 %) of those involved in cyberbullying were also involved in traditional bullying. Children involved in both traditional bullying and cyberbullying were compared with those involved in only traditional bullying. Boys were more likely to be involved in both types of bullying than girls. Children with friends involved in delinquent activities and who did not have trustworthy and supportive friends were more likely to bully both traditionally and in cyberspace. Computer proficiency and use did not differentiate children who had crossed over from those who had not, although computer use for socializing purposes had some predictive value in identifying those children who crossed over. The study reflects the value of school interventions for children as they approach adolescence, covering both traditional bullying and cyberbullying, and targeting social relationships in order to teach children how to manage them safely and intelligently.     

Is school bullying really on the rise?

Whether bullying in schools is increasing, as is widely believed, was investigated drawing upon empirical studies undertaken in a wide range of countries in which findings had been published describing its prevalence at different points in time between 1990 and 2009. Results do not support the view that reported bullying in general has increased during this period; in fact, a significant decrease in bullying has been reported in many countries. However, there are some indications that cyber bullying, as opposed to traditional bullying, has increased, at least during some of this period. The reported decreases in the prevalence of school bullying are consistent with reports of significant but small reductions in peer victimisation following the implementation of anti-bullying programs in schools world-wide.     

Bullying behaviors in female and male adolescent offenders: prevalence,types, and association with psychosocial adjustment

Despite the surge of research on bullying, few studies have examined bullying in young offenders, particularly female young offenders. This study investigated the prevalence, types, and correlates of bullying behaviors in 193 male and 50 female incarcerated adolescents from nine young offender facilities. Overall, 37% of participants identified themselves as bully‐victims, 32% as pure bullies, 23% as not involved, and 8% as pure victims. In comparison to males, females were more likely to report being involved with bullying in some capacity, particularly as pure victims, and being bullied by sexual touching and comments. Pure victims reported higher rates of psychological distress and suicidal behaviors than those youth not involved in bullying, and pure bullies were more likely to have been previously incarcerated and affiliated with a gang. Bully‐victims reported the highest rates of previous abuse, peer victimization in the community, drug use, and suicide attempts while in custody. All groups, including pure victims, reported high rates of bullying others in the community. Treatment providers should recognize that offenders who are victims are often bullies as well, and be alert to broad mental health needs among victims and bully‐victims. Given the prevalence and potential serious consequences of bullying, the development of anti‐bullying policies appears to be an important step in recognizing and reducing bullying. Aggr. Behav. 00:1–16, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Effects of cooperative learning on peer relations,empathy, and bullying in middle school

Although researchers have developed prevention programs to reduce bullying, the results are mixed, and this may be due to a degree of uncertainty in their theoretical foundation. In particular, these programs share an emphasis on empathy as a personal attribute that can be enhanced among students through the application of specific curricula that will, in turn, contribute to a reduction in bullying behavior. However, the link between empathy and bullying is unclear, as is the ability of bullying prevention programs to actually impact student empathy. In this study, we used a cluster randomized trial (N = 15 middle schools, 1,890 students, 47.1% female, 75.2% White) to evaluate the impact of cooperative learning on bullying, and we evaluated whether these effects were mediated by empathy and peer relatedness. Our results indicated that cooperative learning can significantly reduce bullying, and that some of this effect is transmitted via enhancements to affective empathy. Cooperative learning also demonstrated significant positive effects on cognitive empathy, but this did not have an effect on bullying. We also found that the effects of cooperative learning on cognitive and affective empathy were mediated by improvements in peer relatedness. These findings add a degree of clarity to the literature, and also represent the first time, as far as we are aware, that an antibullying program has been found to have significant effects on both cognitive and affective empathy.     

Affirmation and Care: A Feminist Account of Bullying and Bullying Prevention

Despite the amount of attention that activists, educators, psychologists, and the media place on bullying and bullying prevention, there has been no sustained philosophical reflection on bullying, nor has there been a feminist analysis of the growing literature on bullying. This essay seeks to satisfy those two needs. The first section is a broad introduction to the literature on bullying. I define bullying and distinguish it from teasing, sassing, roughhousing, and other more benign interactions. I also outline two common solutions to bullying: zero‐tolerance policies and “ecological” interventions. The second section uses feminist ethics of care to analyze the effectiveness of each approach. I argue that ecological approaches to bullying are preferable to zero‐tolerance policies because they operate on a relational model of the self and identity‐formation. I elaborate a notion of affirmation as the mechanism that stabilizes and solidifies our sense of self across time. I then use affirmation to analyze three things: why people bully one another, the specific harm inflicted by bullying, and why ecological approaches are more effective in reducing bullying. The third section uses my account of affirmation to critique the scientism and troublingly gendered assumptions that underlie much of the work on bullying.     

Telling adults about one's plight as a victim of bullying: Student- and context-related factors predicting disclosure

We examined student- and context-related factors related to whether bullied students tell adults about their plight at school or at home. The sample included 1,266 students in primary (Grades 4–6) and lower secondary (Grades 8–9) schools, who had answered an online questionnaire at two measurement points about 5 months apart and were identified as victims of bullying on the basis of the latter. Only 55.4% of the bullied students had told their situation to someone, and much fewer had told an adult. Telling an adult at home was more common (34.0%) than telling a teacher (20.6%) or some other adult at school (12.7%). In a longitudinal structural equation model (SEM), factors related to increased likelihood of telling an adult were female gender, lower grade level, the chronicity of victimization, perceived negative teacher attitude towards bullying (teacher not tolerating bullying), and perceived peer support for victims (classmates’ tendency to defend students who are victimized).     

Bullying at work: the impact of shame among university and college lecturers

This paper explores the concept of shame within the context of workplace bullying. Despite a decade or more of international research into bullying at work, there is little or no evidence for explicit exploration of shame amongst those who have experienced bullying. Based on content analysis from the narratives of 15 college and university lecturers who were self-selecting victims of bullying we find clear evidence for feelings of shame which appear to last long after the bullying episodes have ended.     

The School Bully: Assessing the Problem, Developing Interventions, and Future Research Directions

A growing concern exists among educators regarding the prevalence and impact of bullying behavior in the public schools. This behavior has serious repercussions for school climate and school safety in general. In addition, strong indicators suggest bullying behavior appears to be a precursor for community violence. Studies indicate that educators are not fully aware of the prevalence or the seriousness of bullying behavior in schools. A need exists to assess systematically the extent to which bullying behavior may be present in a given school. The critical features of several bullying assessment instruments were examined. In response to the growing concern regarding bullying, a large number of programs designed to address bullying are emerging. However, it is recommended that before selecting a program three criteria should be considered: the program (a) is supported by research; (b) is based on sound behavioral principles; and (c) emphasizes teaching prosocial behavior to replace bullying behavior.     

Tempted to join in or not? Moral temptation and self-reported behaviour in bullying situations

We investigate the relationship between adolescents’ construction of a transgression relating to a hypothetical temptation and bystander behaviour and bullying (offline and online). A total of 331 Swiss eighth graders completed an electronic questionnaire on bystanding, bullying, moral disengagement, and empathy. Moral functioning was assessed in a hypothetical scenario, using different moral judgements (deontic and self-judgement, judging the transgression; paper-and-pencil measure). Cluster analyses were used to identify patterns of moral functioning. For the open situation (deontic and self-judgement), happy transgressors, happy moralists, ashamed moralists, and indifferent moralists were differentiated, and for the transgression (accomplished deed) moralists and happy opportunists. The analyses yielded significant differences between the different cluster groups. Happy transgressors (open situation) reported higher levels of assisting the bullying than unconcerned moralists. Happy transgressors also reported lower levels of helping than ashamed and happy moralists. Opportunists (accomplished deed) reported higher levels of assisting the bullying, offline bullying, and lower levels of helping the victim. The multivariate GEE analyses showed that happy transgressors reported higher levels of assisting the bully and online bullying than the moralist groups (open situation). The study shows that adolescents who construct a favourable interpretation of yielding to temptation in a hypothetical scenario displayed higher levels of both assisting the bully and online bullying, emphasizing the need for incorporating targeted moral education in bullying prevention.