As students’ age they are verbally and physically bullied less
but cyberbullied more, non-native English speakers are not bullied more often
than native English speakers and bullying increases as students’ transition
from elementary to middle school.
Those are among
the findings of a wide-ranging paper, “Examination of the Change in Latent
Statuses in Bullying Behaviors Across Time,” recently (2014) published in the
journal School Psychology Quarterly. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/spq0000082)
Authors of the paper are: Cixin Wang, an assistant professor
at the University of California, Riverside’s Graduate School of Education; Ji
Hoon Ryoo, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia; and Susan M.
Swearer, an associate professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The paper is based on data about bullying victimization and
perpetration obtained from 1,180 fifth- through eighth- grade students over
three semesters at schools in a mid-western city in the United States.
The paper is unique in that it captures data about bullies and
bully victims over time using latent transition analysis, a person-centered
approach that classifies different subgroups and traces the changes in
membership over time. Previous approaches have assumed bully and bully victim
subgroups remain constant over time.
The subgroups created by the researchers focus on the amount
students bully or are bullied and the type of bullying. The researchers also
studied variables such as gender, grade and whether students were native
English speakers.
Their findings include:
• Showing that
students who are bullied fall into four subgroups: frequent victim (11
percent), occasional traditional victim (29 percent), occasional cyber and
traditional victim (10 percent), and infrequent victim (50 percent).
(Traditional means verbal, physical and relational, but not cyber.)
• Showing the
students who bully fall into three categories: frequent perpetrator (5
percent), occasional verbal/relational perpetrator (26 percent), and infrequent
perpetrator (69 percent).
• Bullying
victimization and perpetration decreased over time, however there was an
increase from fifth to sixth grade, which corresponds with the transition from
elementary to middle school at the schools the researchers studied.
• Over all,
girls were more likely to experience verbal/relational and cyber victimization
than boys, and boys were more likely to be physically victimized.
• Students for
whom English is a second language were not bullied more often than native
English speakers. This runs counter to previous studies that found students for
whom English is a second language were more likely to be victimized.
The researchers also recommend a series of school-based
interventions to address bullying:
• Considering
the oldest students were more likely to engage in bullying, and bullying
perpetration increased after students transitioned into middle school, school
personnel should focus their intervention resources on students in sixth and
eighth grades. Interventions should teach social-emotional learning skills to
students and appropriate ways to navigate new peer groups and social
hierarchies.
• Considering
the gender differences for those that bully, different interventions may be
warranted for boys and girls. Interventions for girls may focus on relationship
issues and appropriate use of social media, while interventions for boys may
address physical bullying.
• It is
important for teachers and parents to talk to students about cyber safety and
to supervise internet and mobile device use to help prevent cyber
victimization. It is also important for adults to take reports of
verbal/relational bullying and cyberbullying seriously and to intervene in all
cases.
School will only be free from bullying when interventions are
gender and culturally sensitive and address all types of bullying, Wang said.
“School-based interventions need to address the differences in
perpetrator and victim experiences,” she said. “The key is to use
individualized specific interventions for bullying, not a one-size-fits-all
approach.”
Wang’s currently research focused on working with local
schools to improve school climate and decrease bullying.
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