In studies of middle and high school students, (Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2006; Kowalski et al., 2005; Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2006) the most common way that children and youth reported being cyberbullied was through instant messaging. Somewhat less common ways involved the use of chat rooms, emails, and messages posted on Web sites. A study of younger children (Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2006) showed that they were most often bullied through email, comments on a Web site, or in a chat room.
Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Bullying is aggressive behavior that is intentional and involves an imbalance of power or strength. Usually, it is repeated over time. Traditionally, bullying has involved actions such as: hitting or punching (physical bullying), teasing or name-calling (verbal bullying), or intimidation through gestures or social exclusion. In recent years, technology has given children and youth a new means of bullying each other.
Cyberbullying, which is sometimes referred to as online social cruelty or electronic bullying, can involve:
- Sending mean, vulgar, or threatening messages or images
- Posting sensitive, private information about another person
- Pretending to be someone else in order to make that person look bad
- Intentionally excluding someone from an online group (Willard, 2005)
Children and youth can cyberbully each other through:
- Emails
- Instant messaging
- Text or digital imaging messages sent on cell phones
- Web pages
- Blogs
- Chat rooms or discussion groups
- Other information communication technologies
Source: Department of Health & Human Services
- A lack of warmth and involvement on the part of parents
- Overly permissive parenting (including a lack of limits for children’s behavior)
- A lack of supervision by parents
- Harsh, physical discipline
- Bullying incidences at home
Source: HRSA
Research shows that bullying can be a sign of other serious antisocial and/or violent behavior. Children who frequently bully their peers are more likely than others to:
- Get into frequent fights
- Be injured in a fight
- Vandalize or steal property
- Drink alcohol
- Smoke
- Be truant from school
- Drop out of school
- Carry a weapon
Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
- Impulsive, hot-headed, dominant
- Easily frustrated
- Lack empathy
- Have difficulty following rules
- View violence in a positive way
- Boys who bully tend to be physically stronger than other children.
There is no single cause of bullying among children. A host of different factors can place a child at risk for bullying his or her peers. However, it has been found that children who bully are more likely than their non-bullying peers to come from homes with certain characteristics.
Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
If you suspect your child is being bullied, remember to support your child, inform others and take action.
- First, focus on your child. Be supportive and gather information about the bullying. Tell your child you are concerned about him or her and ask questions.
- Contact your child’s teacher and/or principal. He or she will probably be in the best position to understand the relationships between your child and other peers at school. Ask the teacher to talk to other adults who interact with your child at school to see if they have observed students bullying your child.
- If you know your child is being bullied, take quick action. There is nothing worse than doing nothing, and bullying can have serious effects.
If, after talking with your child and staff at his or her school, you don’t believe your child is being bullied, be alert to other possible problems your child may be having. Share your concerns with a counselor at your child’s school.
Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
There are many signs that a child is being bullied. Some signs to look for:
- The child comes home with torn, damaged, or missing pieces of clothing, books or other belongings.
- The child has unexplained bruises, cuts or scratches.
- The child seems afraid of going to school, walking to and from school, riding the school bus or taking part in organized activities with peers.
- The child appears sad, moody, teary or depressed when he or she comes home.
- The child frequently appears anxious and/or suffers from low self-esteem.
Source: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Bullying is aggressive behavior that is intentional, repeated over time, and involves an imbalance of power or strength. A child who is being bullied has a hard time defending himself or herself.
Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
A bullying prevention and intervention coordinating team might include:
- an administrator
- a teacher from each grade
- a member of the non-teaching staff
- a school counselor or other school-based mental health professional
- a parent
The team should meet regularly to review findings from the school’s survey; plan specific bullying prevention activities; motivate staff, students, and parents; and ensure that the efforts continue over time.
- Provide training for school staff in bullying prevention. All administrators, faculty and staff at a school should be trained in bullying prevention and intervention. In-service training can help staff members to better understand the nature of bullying and its effects, how to respond if they observe bullying, and how to work with others at the school to help prevent bullying.
- Establish and enforce school rules and policies related to bullying. Developing simple, clear rules about bullying can help to ensure that students are aware of adults’ expectations that they not bully others and that they help students who are bullied. School rules and policies should be posted and discussed with students and parents. Appropriate positive and negative consequences should be developed.
- Increase adult supervision in “hot spots” for bullying. Bullying tends to thrive in locations where adults are not present or are not watchful. Adults should look for creative ways to increase adult presence in locations that students identify as “hot spots.”
- Intervene consistently and appropriately when you see bullying. Observed or suspected bullying should never be ignored by adults. All school staff should learn effective strategies to intervene on-the-spot to stop bullying. Staff members also should be designated to hold sensitive follow-up meetings with students who are bullied and (separately) with students who bully. Staff members should involve parents whenever possible.
- Devote some class time to bullying prevention. Students can benefit if teachers set aside a regular period of time (e.g., 20-30 minutes each week or every other week) to discuss bullying and improving peer relations. These meetings can help teachers to keep their fingers on the pulse of students’ concerns, allow time for discussions about bullying and the harms that it can cause, and provide tools for students to address bullying problems. Anti-bullying messages also can be incorporated throughout the school curriculum.
- Continue these efforts. There should be no “end date” for bullying prevention activities. Bullying prevention should be continued over time and woven into the fabric of the school environment.
Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
A review of bullying prevention programs and feedback from educators in the field led us to suggest 10 strategies that represent “best practice” in bullying prevention and intervention.
- Focus on the social environment of the school. In order to reduce bullying, it is important to change the social climate of the school and the social norms with regards to bullying. This requires the efforts of everyone in the school environment—teachers, administrators, counselors school nurses other non-teaching staff (such as bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers, and/or school librarians), parents, and students.
- Assess bullying at your school. Adults are not always very good at estimating the nature and prevalence of bullying at their school. As a result, it can be quite useful to administer an anonymous questionnaire to students about bullying. A number of bullying prevention programs listed in the Catalog of Resources include these measures.
- Obtain staff and parent buy-in and support for bullying prevention. Bullying prevention should not be the sole responsibility of any single individual at a school. To be most effective, bullying prevention efforts require buy-in from the majority of the staff and from parents. However, bullying prevention efforts should still begin even if immediate buy-in from all isn’t achievable. Usually, more and more supporters will join the effort once they see what it’s accomplishing.
- Form a group to coordinate the school’s bullying prevention activities. Bullying prevention efforts seem to work best if they are coordinated by a representative group from the school. This coordinating team might include:
- an administrator
- a teacher from each grade
- a member of the non-teaching staff
- a school counselor or other school-based mental health professional
- a parent
Source: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
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