Stability of harassment in children: analysis of the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth data

No longitudinal information about bullying and peer harassment among Canadian children currently exists. In the present study, the author examined the stability of bullying and harassment. The sample consisted of two cohorts of children aged 10-11 years (n=2798) and 12-13 years (n=1946) drawn from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, which is a stratified random sample of households in Canada. The author analyzed children's reports of bullying and harassment from 1994 to 2001 using cross-sectional time-series analyses. The results show that children who were not bullied or harassed in one cycle were unlikely to report being bullied or harassed at a subsequent cycle. About half of children who reported being bullied or harassed in a previous cycle also reported being bullied or harassed in a subsequent cycle. The author concludes that some children may be resilient, whereas others are vulnerable to ongoing bullying and harassment from their peers.