The relevance of the school class as social unit for the prevalence of bullying and victimization

Prevalence rates of bullying and victimization in schools are usually reported for the whole sample under study and not at a school-class level. The importance of classroom dynamics for the prevalence of bullying and victimization are either neglected or assumed to be constant mechanisms activated in nearly every school class. At a school-class level, similar prevalence rates of bullying and victimization are expected. The present study investigates whether this assumption is true, or whether bullying varies from class to class. For data analyses, information from four studies on bullying and victimization are used. In sum, rates of bullying and victimization were analysed in 86 different school classes (1910 pupils, grades 4 to 9). Results show a tremendous variability in the occurrence of bullying and victimization between school classes ranging between 0 and 54.5%. Thus, there exist very peaceful and very violent school classes. These differences are shown for various bullying forms (verbal vs. physical), methods of measurement (self-assessment vs. peer-nomination) and frames of reference (this week vs. this term). Implications of these findings are discussed.