How common is bullying?

In a 1989 Scottish study, 942 children in Scotland were asked about bullying in school. Half said they had been bullied at least once or twice during their time at school and slightly fewer admitted to bullying someone else. A quarter had been bullied 'sometimes or more often'. Just less than a third had never been involved either as bully or victim. However, when the pupils were asked about their experiences over the last couple of months, 6% had been bullied 'sometimes or more often' and 4% had bullied someone else more than once or twice.
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Article details

A Mellor (1997) 'Bullying in Scottish Secondary Schools', SCRE Spotlight Number 23. Available to download from SCRE's website.
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Graph details

'Pupils involved in bullying during their school career', from the Mellor article available online above, table 1, page 2. Please note, in the graph each category is exclusive.

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Author details

At the time of the study, Andrew Mellor was a practising teacher who had received funding from the Scottish Education Department to carry out this project. He has been actively involved in anti-bullying work in Scotland for almost 15 years, speaking at conferences, writing for academic and non-academic audiences and running in-service courses for teachers. He is now manager of the Anti-Bullying Network, which is funded by the Scottish Executive and based at The University of Edinburgh.
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