Stoltz, 2007; Ybarra, Alexander, & Mitchell, 2(05). These studies have .... ing a criminal record by age 30 (Eron, Huesmann, Dubow,. Romanoff, & Yarnel, 1987).
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Individual and Contextual Influences on Bullying Perpetration and Victimization DOROTHY L ESPELAGE, MEUSSA
K.
HOLT, AND
V.
PAUL POTEAT
porate several social environments that have more recently been studied in relation to bullying, including the family, peer, and school context. We also include an overview of some emerging longitudinal research, including research examining bullying over the transition from elementary school to middle school. Finally, we review several bullying prevention and intervention models and programming that have been used in schools.
Bullying is recognized as one of the major problems facing schools today, as evidenced by the documented deleterious effects it has on the psychological and social functioning and academic performance of students and its broader negative effects on the overall climate of schools (Hodges & Perry, 1999; Kasen, Berenson, Cohen, & Johnson, 2004; Schwartz, Gorman, Nakamoto, & Tobiin, 2005). The seri ousness and difficulty of this problem is further indicated by the absence of data showing any overall decrease in bullying since researchers first began studying this behavior within schools. However, research has provided a more critical understanding of this behavior. Specifically, this research has included a better characterization of individuals who are bullies, victims, and individuals who adopt other roles in bullying episodes, the identification of immediate and long-term effects associated with bullying involvement, the identification of individual and social factors that contrib ute to the development and perpetuation of this behavior, documentation of where and when bullying behavior is more likely to occur, and more recently, the identification of longitudinal developmental trajectories of bullies and victims that have assisted in better predicting the progres sion of bullying behavior and victimization for certain groups of individuals. In this chapter, we provide a general overview and dis cussion of the current bullying literature, and highlight the current state of research within this area of study. We begin with a general definition of bullying and also specify vari ous forms of bullying that have been identified and studied in research. We then elaborate on the various factors that have been found to be associated with bullying and victim ization. From this, we provide further characterization of individuals identified as bullies and victims. We also include information on bully-victims, or individuals who report bullying other students and also being bullied themselves. After providing infomlation on bullyingJrom an individual perspective, we broaden our discussion of bullying to incor
Defining and Assessing Bullying Behavior Dan Olweus was one of the first scholars to systematically research bullying, which began when he spearheaded a multi nation Scandinavian campaign against bullying in the 1970s. Olweus proposed the following definition of bullying, which remains current today: "A student is being bullied or victimized when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more students" (Olweus, 1993b, p. 3). The preceding definition highlights (a) the aggressive component of bullying, (b) the associated inherent power imbalance, and (c) its repetitive nature. It is also important to distinguish bUllying from other more extreme forms of maladaptive and deviant behavior, such as conduct disorder or oppositional defiant disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Although a significant level of aggression is often displayed by indi viduals diagnosed with these conditions, the prevalence rate of individuals meeting classification criteria for these categories is significantly less than individuals typically identified as bullies. In addition, significant distinctions ex ist in developmental trajectories, prognoses, and outcomes for individuals identified as bullies and individuals classified in these more extreme categories. In recent years scholars have recognized the wide range of behaviors consistent with bullying, including physical, verbal, and relational manifestations (Coie & Dodge, 1998; Crick, 1996; Crick & Bigbee, 1998; Ladd& Burgess. 2001;
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Individual and Contextual Inftuences on Bullying Smith & Sharp, 1994; Swearer & Doll, 200 I). Physical bullying consists of overt physical acts directed toward peers, such as hitting ~r shoving. Verbal bullying inclu~es behaviors such as calhng someone else names or making derogatory remarks about someone else. Actions designed to damage or manipulate relationships, such as spreading rumors or excluding an individual from group activities, are considered to be forms of relational bullying. Finally, bullying research has also begun to examine Internet-based and electronically related forms of bullying (Raskauskas & Stoltz, 2007; Ybarra, Alexander, & Mitchell, 2(05). These studies have explored how some children and adolescents have started to use personal WebPages, e-mail, text-messag ing, and other electronic forms of corrununication to post threats, rumors, or embarrassing pictures of an individual as a way in which to bully the targeted person. Preliminary findings suggest this to increasingly be an outlet used for bullying, and one that poses more complex and difficult challenges for researchers and school administrators.
Assessment of Bullying A variety of methodologies have been used by researchers to assess bullying and identify bul lies, victims, and other individuals involved during bullying episodes. These methods include the use of self-report to document levels of bUllying and victimization (e.g., Espel age & Holt, 200 I), self- and peer-nominations of bullies and victims by participating students (e.g., Kochenderfer & Ladd, 1996; Rodkin, Farmer, Pearl, & Van Acker, 2000; Xie, Cairns, & Cairns, 1999), observational documentation of bullying and victimization by researchers (e.g., Pepler & Craig, 1995), and laboratory and experimental examina tion of bullying among dyads and groups of students (e.g., Dodge, Coie, Pettit, & Price, 1990; Hubbard, Dodge, Cil lessen, Coie, & Schwartz, 200 I). Self-reported levels ofbul lying and victimization have been assessed through various empirically validated scales, and can be helpful in examin ing the frequency of bUllying and victimization along a con tinuum. Nomination methods reflect a sociometric approach to assessing bullying behavior, and have generally been found to converge with self-report data, where individuals self-reporting higher levels of bullying and victimization also receive a higher number of peer-nominations for being a bully or victim, respectively (Espelage & Holt, 2001). At the same time, research has documented that differences between peer-nominated and self-reported victimization can reflect different psychological and social adjustment ISsues faced by these students (Graham, Bellmore, & JUvonen, 2003). Observational methods have included naturalistic observations with researchers physically pres ent to document the behavior as it occurs, and also more technologically advanced observational methods through the use of video recordings. Laboratory and experimental me~ods have allowed researchers greater control over the SOcIal environment, and usually invol ve observation within a la?oratory setting, where children are brought in to interact WIth one another for a specified amount of time or to com plete a particular activity given to them by the researchers.
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The use of a multi method approach to studying bullying has enabled researchers to test the convergence, agreement, and forms of validity of each method, and to address unique limitations in the use of each method.
Prevalence of Bullying Current estimates suggest that nearly 30% of American students are involved in bully ing (Nansel et al., 2001). Specifically, findings from this nationally representative sample indicated that among 6th to 10th graders, 13% had bullied others, II % had been bullied, and 6% had both bullied others and been bullied. Other smaller-scale studies within the United States and abroad have also reported similar findings. For example, Boulton and Smith (1994) found that approximately 13% of British students were nominated by their peers as bullies. Similarly, in the United States, Espelage and Holt (2001) classified 15% of students as bullies based on self-report data. When examining the entirety of students' experiences at school, a majority of students have reported experienc ing victimization, ranging from 58% (Eslea & Rees, 2(01) through 77% (Hoover, Oliver, & Hazier, 1992). Bullying prevalence rates vary based on a number of factors, however, including the type of bullying under consideration and the sex and age of youth. For instance, verbal bullying is much more common than physical bullying (Benbenishty & Astor, 2005), with one study finding that verbal aggression wail1(len('. over a 4-year period, Kochenderfer-Ladd and Wardmp (::'OO I) found that while many students did experknce> Y
