Updates on Student Reports of Bullying 2018-19

Estimates from Version 1 of the survey show that 22 percent of students ages 12 through 18 answered that they have experienced bullying behaviors at school from another student. Of those students, 41 percent thought the bullying would happen again, and 46 percent notified an adult about the bullying.   The National Center for Education Statistics released a new Web Tables Report today (July 27), entitled Student Reports of Bullying: Results From the 2019 School Crime Supplement (SCS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey. For this year the SCS included a randomized split-half experiment designed to compare two versions of an updated series of questions on bullying, and to test changes in wording for several additional items. This report shows the extent to which students with different characteristics report being bullied, including estimates by student sex, race/ethnicity, grade, and household income as well as the characteristics of the schools they attend, with separate estimates for each version of the split-half survey.  In 2019 approximately 22 percent of students ages 12 through 18 reported being bullied at school. Of these students, 29 percent reported that the bullying was related to their appearance, 11 percent reported a relation to their race, 8 percent reported a relation to their disability, 6 percent reported a relation to their ethnic origin, 5 percent reported a relation to their gender, 4 percent reported a relation to their sexual orientation, and 3 percent reported a relation to their religion. (Version 1) Overall, 25 percent of female students and 19 percent of male students ages 12 through 18 report being bullied. Among these students, 20 percent of females and 14 percent of males report negative effects of bullying on their schoolwork, with 16 percent of females and 7 percent of males reporting negative effects on their physical health. (Version 1)   Similar to results from Version 1, Version 2 found that 22 percent of students ages 12 through 18 reported experiencing bullying behaviors at school. However, only half these students considered these experiences to be bullying.    The tables in this report include data from the 2019 School Crime Supplement (SCS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The U.S. Census Bureau (Census) appended additional data from the 2017–18 Common Core of Data (CCD) and the 2017–18 Private School Universe Survey (PSS) to the SCS data to show the extent to which bullying victimization is reported by students in schools with different characteristics.