Who do children tell when they are being bullied?

Over a number of years in the 1990s, more than 26,000 Australian children provided information about bullying. Their answers revealed that both boys and girls are most likely to tell friends about bullying, then their mother, then their father and lastly their teachers. If bullying becomes more frequent, the likelihood of telling someone also increases. Sadly, approximately 40% of boys and 25% of girls who are bullied every week do not tell their friends, even more feel unable to confide in their parents. The studies also found that as children grow older they become less likely to tell. The exception was that girls were more likely to tell their friends as they grew older.
.........................................

Article details

K Rigby 'What Children Tell Us About Bullying in Schools', in, 'Children Australia' (1997) 22, 2, 28-34. Available to read online here.
.........................................

Graph details

See Table 3, 'Percentages of children who have been bullied and have told about it, according to person told, and gender and age group of informant', within the above article. Follow the online link.
.........................................

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.
.........................................