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Are
there differences in the bullying experiences of girls and
boys?
In the early 1990s,
over 16,000 children from primary and secondary schools
in Strathclyde were asked about bullying. According to the
pupils' answers, two thirds of bullying was carried out
by boys. While there is not a large difference in the type
of bullying, the boys did tend to use more physical bullying,
while girls were slightly more likely than boys to keep
others out of things. It was also found that boys tended
to be bullied by other boys. However girls in primary school
were bullied equally by both boys and girls; those in secondary
school more by girls than boys. Another difference was that
boys in primary school were bullied more often by older
pupils. In secondary school, both girls and boys were more
likely to be bullied by pupils of the same age.
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Article details
A McLean (about 1994),
'Bullyproofing Our School - what do the pupils think?',
unpublished report. Reference copy held by the Anti-Bullying
Network.
There is also a summary of the project - A McLean, (1997)
'Bullyproofing Our School: what do the pupils think?', Topic
2, Issue 17, National Foundation for Educational Research
(NFER). This article can be viewed here.
.........................................
 Author
details
At the time of this
study, Alan McLean was Principal Psychologist based at the
Education Department Psychological Service in the former
Strathclyde Regional Council. His particular interests in
the area of bullying include: links between bullying and
motivation; the thinking processes and self-esteem of the
bully.
He can be contacted
at by email.
In a study which began
in 1990, over 6,000 primary and secondary school children
in Sheffield were asked about bullying. Their answers showed
that there is not much difference in the number of boys
and girls being bullied. However, twice as many boys as
girls admitted to bullying others. It was found that boys
tended to be bullied by other boys, while girls were bullied
by both girls and boys. Pupils' answers also revealed that
it was more common for boys to be involved in physical bullying
while girls were more likely than boys to be involved in
psychological bullying (such as ignoring someone or deliberately
keeping someone out of things).
.........................................
Article details
I Whitney and P Smith
(1993), 'A Survey of the Nature and Extent of Bullying in
Junior/Middle and Secondary Schools', in 'Educational Research',
Volume 35, Number 1, Spring.
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Graph details
'Percentage of boys
and girls (averaged by class and school) who reported being
bullied and bullying others during this school term' from
Whitney and Smith article above, table 1, page 8.
|
Junior/Middle
Schools |
Secondary
Schools |
|
Sometimes
or more |
Once
a week or more |
Sometimes
or more |
Once
a week or more |
| Been
bullied: |
|
|
|
|
| Boys
(N = 1271) |
28 |
10 |
12 |
5 |
| Girls
(N = 1352) |
27 |
10 |
9 |
4 |
| Overall
(N = 2623) |
27 |
10 |
10 |
4 |
| Bullied
others: |
|
|
|
|
| Boys
(N = 2152) |
16 |
6 |
8 |
2 |
| Girls
(N = 1983) |
7 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
| Overall
(N = 4135) |
12 |
4 |
6 |
1 |
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Author details
 Professor
Peter K Smith is Head of the Unit for School and Family
Studies, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, London.
He has been involved in bullying research for a number of
years and has published widely on this topic.
Peter Smith may be
contacted by email,
and the website of the Unit for School and Family Studies
at Goldsmiths College may be found
here.
A 1997 study of bullying
in 19 English schools (primary and secondary) revealed physical
bullying was far more common among boys than girls. Girls,
on the other hand, were more likely than boys to deliberately
exclude someone from a group. Another big difference appeared
in answers about the gender of bullies. Usually when boys
were bullied, it was by other boys, however girls were usually
bullied by other girls and by boys. Another difference was
in how bullies felt about their victims. Girls were almost
twice as likely as boys to feel pity towards their target;
they were also more likely to feel generally bad about it.
However, the most common reaction of girls and boys was
that the victims had somehow brought it on themselves. There
was also a difference in the reactions of the victims. It
was more common for girls to cry than boys, also they were
more likely to ask friends for help.
.........................................
Article details
P K Smith and Shu
Shu (2000) 'What Good Schools Can Do About Bullying: findings
from a survey in English schools after a decade of research
and action', in 'Childhood', Volume 7 (2).
.........................................
Graph details
'Percentages of those
bullied (sex of those bullying)' from Smith and Shu article
above, table 5, page 202.
|
Boy
victims |
Girl
victims |
| Only
by boys |
75.6 |
9.7 |
| Mainly
by boys |
14.4 |
10.8 |
| By
both boys and girls |
8.8 |
29.5 |
| Mainly
by girls |
0.3 |
14.9 |
| Only
by girls |
0.9 |
35.1 |
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Author details
Professor
Peter K Smith is Head of the Unit for School and Family
Studies, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, London.
He has been involved in bullying research for a number of
years and has published widely on this topic.
Peter Smith may be
contacted by email,
and the website of the Unit for School and Family Studies
at Goldsmiths College may be found
here.
According to the answers
of almost 1,000 pupils in Scotland in 1987, at secondary
school, boys were more involved in bullying (as victim or
bully) than girls. In third year the number of boys being
bullied increased sharply while the number of girls who
reported being bullied dropped. Another difference appeared
when pupils were asked if they had bullied others recently,
with far more boys than girls admitting to bullying. This
difference was particularly noticeable in S4, where very
few girls admitted to bullying, but roughly 12% of the boys
admitted bullying others, and 5% admitted to bullying someone
every day.
.........................................
Article details
A Mellor (1989) 'Boys
and Girls', extract from 'Bullying - Not Worth Bothering
About', unpublished report. A reference copy is held by
the Anti-Bullying Network at the University of Edinburgh.
.........................................
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.
When, in the 1990s,
over 26,000 Australian children (8 - 18 years) were asked
about bullying, their answers revealed differences between
the experiences of boys and girls. Boys were bullied more
often than girls, particularly in secondary school. While
boys and girls were subjected to teasing and name calling
almost equally, boys were more likely than girls to be physically
bullied and threatened. According to the pupils' answers,
girls were more likely than boys to be deliberately and
unkindly left out of things. There is also a difference
in the way they react to bullying. It was found that boys
were less likely to admit to being bothered by it and, if
they did, they said they felt angry whereas girls said they
felt sad and miserable.
.........................................
Article details
K Rigby, 'What Children
Tell Us About Bullying in Schools.' Available here
or in 'Children Australia', (1997) 22, 2, pp28-34.
.........................................
Graph details
Some illustrative
graphs are available to view by following the above link
to Ken Rigby's online article.
Author details
 Ken
Rigby is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Social Psychology
and an educational consultant at the University of South
Australia. He has been involved in major studies of bullying
in Australia and has published widely on this topic. For
more information about Dr Rigby and his work see the
bullying pages here. Ken may be contacted by e-mail.
An English study of
bullying in 25 secondary schools found little difference
in the number of boys and girls physically bullying others.
There was a greater difference in the way girls and boys
responded to being bullied. It was found that girls were
less likely to retaliate and became victims while boys tended
to hit back. Girls were less violent in their physical bullying
but when they did fight it tended to be very serious. The
study found that after the age of 14 the level of physical
bullying fell for both boys and girls.
.........................................
Article details
D Glover, G Gough,
M Johnson, N Cartwight (2000) 'Bullying in 25 secondary
schools: incidence, impact and intervention', in 'Educational
Research' Volume 42 Issue 2.
In 2000, pupils from
120 schools in Northern Ireland were asked about bullying.
At primary school level girls were more likely to be bullied
by another girl in the same class, while it was more common
for boys to be bullied by an older boy. At secondary school
level it was still more likely for girls to be bullied by
a female classmate, and boys were usually bullied by other
boys. It was also found that at primary and secondary school
level, boys were more likely than girls to be bullied and
to bully others.
.........................................
Article details
'Bullying in Schools:
a Northern Ireland study', Research Briefing (RB) 8/2002.
Department of Education, Northern Ireland. Published October
2002. This document can be downloaded
here (.pdf document). A copy of the full report 'Bullying
in Schools: a Northern Ireland study' is available from
the Department of Education, Northern Ireland, price £5.
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