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What
are the feelings of bystanders?
In 1990, over 6,000
school children in Sheffield took part in a study of bullying.
When asked how they felt about children who bullied, about
half said they found it hard to understand why pupils bullied,
or they found it upsetting.
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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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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.
An Australian study
involving over 600 children found that most of the pupils
felt that it was right to help children who were being bullied.
Most also said that they admired someone who stood up for
the child who was being picked on. Sadly however, a small
number of children had no sympathy for victims. They took
the line that victims deserved it and that they shouldn't
complain about it. Some even thought that it was funny to
watch. The study also found that girls tended to be more
sympathetic towards victims than boys. However, as they
get older (between eight and fifteen years) girls and boys
become less sympathetic. According to a later study, this
drop was halted in the late teen years, when children became
more sympathetic again towards the victim.
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Article details
K Rigby (1996) 'Bullying
in Schools and What to Do About It', Victoria, Australia:
The Australian Council for Educational Research Limited.
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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.
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