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What
do pupils do when they are bullied?
A Scottish study involving
over 16,000 pupils found that a number of different ways
were used by children to try to stop being bullied. According
to the study the most successful way was to make up with
the bullies (if they had fallen out), followed closely by
making friends with them. When children were asked what
they thought had helped most to stop the bullying, the top
three ways (in order) were: standing up to the bully, ignoring
them and showing that the bullying was not having any effect.
Boys were far more likely than girls to think that hitting
the bully back was the most successful approach, (in fact
this was the most common answer of boys), while far more
girls than boys thought that answering back worked.
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Article details
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 obtained from NFER
at a cost of £3.
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 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.
A large Scottish study
looked at the health behaviour of school children. It found
that when boys and girls were bullied they were most likely
to try to get away, or shout to others or to wait for the
bully to calm down. Boys were far more likely than girls
to react by fighting, while girls were far more likely than
boys to tell their parents. It was not common for children
to react by telling a teacher. Sadly, over a quarter of
the children did nothing about it.
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Article details
C Currie, J Todd and
K Wijckmans (1993) 'Health Behaviours of Scottish School
Children: report 2, family, peer, school and socio-economic
influences', University of Edinburgh, Research Unit in Health
and Behavioural Change.
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Author details
 Dr
Candace Currie is Director of the Child
and Adolescent Health Research Unit at The University
of Edinburgh. Since the mid 1980s, she has led research
projects on the health of young people in Scotland. Since
the late 1980s, she has been the Principal Investigator
for Scotland in a major international study of the Health
Behaviour of School-Aged Children (HBSC). Other research
activities include her role as international co-ordinator
of a cross-national study of adolescent smoking control.
Dr Currie may be contacted by email.
An English study in
the 1990s which looked at bullying in 25 secondary schools
found that when bullied, the most common reaction of children
(over 50%) was to stand up to (but not fight) the bully.
The next most common reaction (37%) was to tell someone.
It was found that boys were more likely than girls to fight
in response to bullying, whereas girls were more likely
than boys to tell a member of staff. According to their
answers, children are less likely to tell as they become
older and are more likely to attempt to deal with it themselves.
Indeed it was found that they were twice as likely to fight
in year 11 as in year 7. Almost a quarter said that they
would deal with bullying by trying to avoid the place where
it had occurred, while sadly, 16% said they would remain
silent and do nothing.
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Article details
D Glover, G Gough,
M Johnstone and N Cartwright (2000) 'Bullying in 25 Secondary
Schools: incidence, impact and intervention', in 'Educational
Research', Volume 42 Number 2, Summer.
Over 127 schools in
the United States took part in a study of bullying in 1999.
In answer to a question about their reaction to bullying,
nearly all the children said they did something about it.
Most of the children (approximately 44%) said they told
an adult, approximately 34% told the bully to stop and 32%
tried to get away from the bully. Others responded by telling
a friend, but some reacted by staying at home and some admitted
to hurting others. It was far more common for boys than
girls to react by hurting others.
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Article details
D L Silvernail, A
M Thompson, Z Yang and H J P Kopp (2000) 'A Survey of Bullying
Behavior Among Maine Third Graders', Technical Report, Center
for Educational Policy, Applied Research and Evaluation,
University of Maine. Available to download here.
In 1997 over 2,000
pupils in England answered questions about bullying. It
was found that in a bullying situation the most common reaction
was to ignore the bullies (66%), the next most common response
was to tell them to stop (26%). Other strategies which were
used less frequently included asking an adult to help and
fighting back (both 23%), then crying, followed by asking
friends for help. The least common reaction was to run away.
It was found that girls were more likely than boys to cry
or ask friends for help. Boys were more likely than girls
to fight back. It was also found that the reactions changed
with age. As they grew older, children were less likely
to react by crying and running away and were even more likely
to ignore the bullies. It's pointed out that reacting by
ignoring the bullies might well be more useful with some
types of bullying rather than others, for example it would
probably be more useful if a child was being called horrible
names rather than being hit.
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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, Issue 2.
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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.
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