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What
does it feel like to be bullied?
In frank and powerful
real accounts, two Scottish teenagers describe being bullied
at school. They describe what happened to them and how they
felt at the time. They report feeling very scared and upset,
too frightened to tell anyone. They also ask the anguished
question 'why me?'. However the accounts also tell how they
managed to turn the situation around and rebuild their confidence.
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Article details
R Proudlock (editor)
'Listen to Me. Getting Together to Share and Deal With Our
Problems'. The 'Listen to Me' Project, Highland Council.
To order copies of this booklet contact Rosanna
Proudlock.
Information about
bullying was gathered from over 26,000 primary and secondary
school children in Australia in the 1990s. What did they
tell us about how it feels to be bullied? Of the children
who were bullied at least once a week, two children out
of three said they were bothered by it. It was found that
girls were more likely than boys to admit to being affected
by it. When boys did admit to it, the emotion mentioned
most often was anger. For girls it was more likely to be
sadness. However, as they get older, girls tend to get angrier
about being bullied frequently. Many children answered that
as a result of being bullied they felt worse about themselves.
About 60% of girls and 50% of boys reported a loss of self-esteem.
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Article details
K Rigby 'What Children
Tell Us About Bullying in Schools.' Available to read online
here or in 'Children Australia', (1997) 22, 2, 28-34.
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Graph
details
Table
2, 'Percentages of schoolchildren reporting kinds of (i)
emotional reactions and (ii) self perceptions after being
bullied by their peers, according to gender and age-group'
from the article above. Follow the online link.
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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.
A study of children
from 50 primary and secondary schools in Malta aimed to
find out more about the feelings of bullies and victims
after a bullying incident. It was found that it was most
common for the victim to feel 'vengeful' (about 38% said
they felt this way). This was closely followed by feeling
angry. It was only slightly less likely that the victim
would have feelings of self-pity. Other feelings mentioned
by those being bullied were indifference and helplessness.
Differences appeared between the reactions of primary and
secondary school children. It was found that at secondary
school level, victims were more likely to feel angry and
vengeful, while victims at primary school were more likely
to have feelings of self pity and helplessness.
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Article details
M G Borg (1998) 'The
Emotional Reactions of School Bullies and their Victims'
in 'Educational Psychology', Volume 18, Number 4, pages
433- 444.
In an Australian study,
teenage girls and teachers were invited to talk and write
about verbal and psychological bullying (for example deliberately
keeping someone out of a group). One of the things they
covered was the effect it had on victims. Effects mentioned
included: confusion (asking 'why me?'), denial (pretending
it's not happening), then pain (for example fear, anxiety,
hurt, low self esteem, depression and a drop in self confidence).
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Article details
L Owens, R Shute,
P Slee (2000) ' "Guess What I Just Heard!": Indirect
Aggression Among Teenage Girls in Australia' in 'Aggressive
Behavior', Volume 26, pages 67-83. This journal is very
hard to get hold of in Scotland, but the article can be
ordered from a local library (on inter-library loan) for
a small fee.
Over 700 secondary
school children in England were asked about bullying. Those
who had been bullied said they found it stressful. Boys
and girls both found the most stressful type of bullying
was having rumours spread about them. They also found it
very stressful to be physically bullied, called names, deliberately
kept out of things or being threatened. Almost half of the
victims said that they felt irritable, while just over a
third said they felt panicky and nervous.
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Article details
S Sharp (1995) 'How
Much Does Bullying Hurt? The Effects of Bullying on the
Personal Wellbeing and Educational Progress of Secondary
Aged Students' in 'Educational and Child Psychology', Volume
12, Number 2, pages 81 - 88.
As part of a large
international study of bullying in schools, 29 children
and 7 adults were interviewed in Spain. The questions were
trying to get at how children and adults think and feel
about bullying. These were either people who had experienced
bullying directly or ones who had not, but who were aware
of the issue. The strongest emotion of the victim, according
to those interviewed, would be feeling upset (42%), then
feeling angry (30.5%). Another emotion mentioned was helplessness.
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Article details
C del Barrio (1999)
'The Use of Semistructured Interviews and Qualitative Methods
for the Study of Peer Bullying'. Available to read
online.
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