This article was written by Heymel and Swearer. They explored the school bullying. To begin with, school bullying has been around for a long time but the studies on this topic are recent. The first research is realized in the 1970s.
School bullying has received attention in the média and in academia because it is a significant concern for parents, teachers and educators.
First of all, what is bullying ? Following the work of Olweus, bullying has been defined as a « subcategory of interpersonal aggression characterized by intentionality, repetition and an imbalance of power, with abuse of power being a primary distinction between bullying and other forms of aggression ». So, school bullying can be evaluated by parents, teachers, peers or by direct observation.
It is possible to identify two patterns of bullying using peer reports (Chan). First of all, there are serial bullies. Serial bullies are named as the predators of intimidation by several victims. Then, there is the multiple victimization. This patters of bullying is used when several people bullying the same personne.
It is important to know that the Bullying occurs primarily in the peer group, especially in places with little adult supervision. In addition, the parents often have limited knowledge of what happens at school, and teachers may not actually witness bullying or may choose to ignore it.
According to Phillips and Cornell, the best way to evaluate bullying it is to use a peer review and confirm these assessments by interviews with school counselors.
Finally, a lot of research show that many young are victims of bullying at school.
Moreover, this article highlights prevalent of bullying and victimization. We can notice that: 10% to 33% of students reported victimization by peers and 5% to 13% admitted to bullying others. Usually, the boys intimidate the most and girls are the most victimized by bullying. Moreover, the results of MOS research show a decrease of bullying by peers in most countries. For exemple in USA, the bulling pasts from 22% in 2003 to 15% in 2008. BUT, the cyber bullying increases: 6% in 2000 to 11% in 2010.
So, the traditional form of bullying decreases but the cyber bullying increases.
Also, the authors show that, the bullying is ephemeral when people are young but becomes more and more stable. In fact, studies show that 43% of 10 to 13 years old continued to be seen by peers as victims 3 years later. Others research found links between victimization and a host of negative mental health, social and academic outcomes.
Finally, this article describes different forms of bullying and différent types of bullies. Bullying can take many forms. There are bullying from direct physical harms, verbal bullying, to exclusion, humiliation, rumor spreading and cyber bullying. We noticed that, social and verbal bullying are the most common form among students. Usually boys use physical bullying and girls use verbal bullying. Despite the fact that adults encourage the denunciation of bullying, few students report victimizations by fear of repercussions. Olweus distinguished between children who bully others and children who are victims. The bully victims have been characterized as hyperactive, impulsive, experiencing more peers rejection, more academic difficulties and more stress. Moreover, the bullies have been characterized as: socially intelligent and enjoy considerable status in the peer group.
To sum up, this article tries to define what is school bullying and the different forms that it can take. Bullying can exist everywhere, so it is important to be careful.
Moreover, with the new technology and the development of social network, the cyber bullying takes more and more space. Indeed, it is easer for the stalkers to use different social network to harass people. In addition, with social network, the stalkers can post texts anonymously.
To conclude, the news show that more and more people are affected by school bullying and unfortunately because of fear and shame some people commit suicide. As a consequence, it is very very important to talk about it in order to avoid the worst.
Words we have learnt: Bullying, school bullying, cyber bullying, victims
Hymel, S., & Swearer, S. M. (2015). Four decades of research on school bullying: An introduction. American Psychologist, 70(4), 293‑299. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038928
Amandine Redureau / Lucie Prunes