How popular are victims and bullies?

Over 150 children were asked to describe their peers in certain ways. One of the things covered was how popular they felt their peers to be. It was found that those pupils described by their peers as bullies and victims were more likely than other children to be described as rejected. It was also found that the children described as bullies or victims were less likely than other children to be described as popular.
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Article details

M J Boulton and P K Smith (1994) 'Bully/Victim Problems in Middle-school Children: stability, self-perceived competence, peer perceptions and peer acceptance' in 'British Journal of Developmental Psychology', Volume 12, pages 315 - 329.
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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.

Dr Michael Boulton is a lecturer in Social and Developmental Psychology at Keele University, England. He has published many papers on children's social relationships, particularly on friendship and bullying/aggression.

Dr Boulton may be contacted by email.
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