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How
are different groups, such as ethnic minorities, asylum seekers
and disabled pupils, affected by bullying?
A Scottish study (from
1998 to 2000), looked at the experiences of 26 disabled
children in Scotland. The children (7 - 15 years old) had
a range of disabilities and attended a mix of schools: special
schools, mainstream and some were in integrated units. It
was found that nearly half had been bullied in school. Most
of them had coped successfully on their own with a single
bullying incident, but for a few, bullying occurred daily.
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Article details
C Connors and K Stalker
(2002) 'Children's Experiences of Disability: a positive
outlook', Interchange Number 75, Scottish Executive. This
document can be downloaded
here (see the publications section). Also, a limited
number are available from the Education and Young People
Research Unit Dissemination Officer at the Scottish Executive
Education Department, Victoria Quay, Edinburgh EH6 6QQ.
In an English study
carried out in the early 1990s, 186 children from primary
and secondary schools were asked about bullying. Ninety
three of the children had special educational needs. Almost
two thirds of children with special needs said they had
been bullied, while only a quarter of children without special
needs reported being bullied. According to this study, children
with moderate learning difficulties were more likely to
be bullied than those with mild learning difficulties. It
was also found that children with special needs had fewer
friends. It was suggested that this might make it more likely
that they would be bullied.
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Article details
D Thomson, I Whitney
and P K Smith (1994) 'Bullying of Children with Special
Needs in Mainstream Schools' in 'Support for Learning',
Volume 9, Number 3.
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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.
In this study, 48
traveller children at primary schools in Lancashire were
asked about bullying (see Juric and Eslea). Almost 40% said
that they had been bullied at some point during their time
at school. The bullying was usually physical (84.2%) rather
than verbal (26.3%). This physical bullying was often very
violent, examples given include having an arm broken and
being repeatedly kicked in the face. A quarter (25%) of
the girls who had been bullied said they had missed school
as a result, 10% of the boy victims had done the same. Most
of the children who had reported the bullying to someone
said things had been worked out successfully.
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Article details
S Juric and M Eslea
'The Nature and Extent of Bullying Experienced by Traveller
Children in Primary Schools'. This article can be read
online here (pdf format).
243 Hindu, Indian
Muslim and Pakistani children in England were asked about
bullying in school (see Eslea and Mukhtar, 2000). The results
were alarming, with 57% of boys and 43% of girls answering
that they had been bullied that term. The level of bullying
among the three different groups was more or less the same.
It emerged that it was just as likely for the children to
be bullied by other Asian pupils from a different ethnic
group as it was to bullied by white children. It was uncommon
for children to be bullied by others in the same ethnic
group.
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Article details
M Eslea and K Mukhtar
(2000) 'Bullying and Racism among Asian Schoolchildren in
Britain' in 'Educational Research', Volume 42, Number 2,
pages 207 -217, Summer.
In the early 1990s,
over 1,000 secondary school children from 2 schools in London
and 1 in Glasgow were asked about bullying. Surprisingly,
the reports of bullying from ethnic minority children were
not higher than the reports from children from the ethnic
majority. However, there was a big difference when children
were asked if they thought that generally, ethnic minority
children were bullied more than children from the ethnic
majority. Many more children from ethnic minority groups
felt this was true than ethnic majority children.
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Article details
G Siann, M Callaghan,
P Glissov, R Lockhart and L Rawson (1994) 'Who Gets Bullied?
The effect of school, gender and ethnic group' in 'Educational
Research', Volume 36, Number 2.
This Scottish study
(see Stead, Closs and Arshad, 1999) gathered information
about the school experiences of young refugees. When the
12 young refugees were asked about name calling, bullying
and racism all but one said they had experienced this. Interviews
with parents revealed that they felt very strongly about
bullying and racism and how their children got on with other
children.
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Article details
J Stead, A Closs and
R Arshad (1999) 'Refugee Pupils in Scottish Schools', SCRE
Spotlight, Number 74. This article can be viewed
online here. Please note that there is just a brief
reference to bullying in this paper.
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Author
details
 Rowena
Arshad OBE has been Director of the Centre
for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland (CERES)
at The University of Edinburgh since 1994. She has been
involved in the area of equality (particularly race equality)
since 1983 and has published widely in this area. More recently
she has been involved in research into the school experiences
of refugee children in Scotland and the experiences of minority
ethnic pupils. Rowena may be contacted by email.
Alison Closs is Senior
Lecturer at Moray House School of Education at The University
of Edinburgh. In addition to her teaching commitments she
has been involved in educational research for a number of
years. Her research interests include SEN/Support for Learning,
the education of children with chronic and/or deteriorating
conditions and the school experiences of refugee pupils
and their parents in Scotland. In a recent study she investigated
the experiences of disabled children and adults in the former
Yugoslavia. She is also on the editorial team of the Scottish
Schools Ethos Network. Alison may be contacted by email.
Dr Joan Stead is a
researcher at the Moray House School of Education at The
University of Edinburgh. Her recent research has focused
on: the experiences of refugee children in schools, school
exclusion, the experiences of Traveller children in schools
and also social inclusion of visually impaired pupils in
mainstream schools. Joan may be contacted by email.
An English study looked
at the experiences of 190 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered
adults who had been bullied at school. Their answers revealed
that the most common forms of bullying they had suffered
at school were name-calling (82%) and being ridiculed in
front of others (71%). In most cases the names they were
called related to their sexual orientation. Many more men
(68%) than women (31%) in the study said that they had been
hit or kicked. About 29% of the lesbian and bisexual women
in the study had suffered physical bullying at school. It
is important to note that this figure is higher than the
figure for physical bullying amongst the broader population
of schoolgirls found in an earlier study by the same researcher
(24% at primary school level and 5% at secondary school
level). It is also disturbing to note that 21% of the adults
in the later study reported being sexually assaulted at
school (19 men and 2 women). Only 22% had told their teachers
they were being bullied, and only 16% had told them why.
It was slightly more likely that they would tell someone
at home, but again very few would say why. To end on a positive
note, the study did not support the findings of two other
researchers that lesbian, gay and bisexual victims of bullying
had particular problems with anxiety or had particular problems
with feelings of insecurity in close relationships in later
life. Although as adults, the participants were in some
ways still affected by their experience of bullying, they
did not suffer from low self-esteem and were positive about
their sexuality.
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Article details
I Rivers (2001) 'The
Bullying of Sexual Minorities at School: its nature and
long- term correlates' in ' Educational and Child Psychology',
Volume 18, Part 1, pages 32 - 46. See also 'Homophobic Bullying
and Its Long-Term Effects. Summary of Findings.' This can
be downloaded
here.
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 Author
details
Dr Ian Rivers is Senior
Lecturer in Psychology at the College of Ripon and York
St John in York. He has published widely on issues affecting
lesbian and gay young people. The main focus of his research
is homophobic bullying. Dr Rivers may be contacted by email.
Fifteen young gay
and bisexual men (between 14 and 26 years of age) from the
North East of England were asked about their experiences
at school. Only 20% said that they had not been bullied
at school because of their sexual orientation. All of the
participants who had been bullied had suffered verbal abuse,
and 75% had been physically abused at least once. For some
the bullying happened regularly and over a long period of
time. The study revealed that many of the young men who
had been bullied (58%), had not told their parents about
it. However 75% of those who had been bullied had told a
teacher, although one young man had not revealed that it
was homophobic. Unfortunately for many, the teachers' responses
were neither supportive or effective. Seventeen per cent
of those who had had not received support from teachers
or parents had thought about or actually attempted suicide
and 33% had suffered depression. Other reported effects
of bullying included loss of confidence and self-esteem,
feelings of isolation and also difficulties concentrating
on school work.
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Article details
H Ford (2002) 'Homophobic
Bullying in North East Schools. Summary of Research Findings',
Newcastle Upon Tyne, England: MESMAC North East.
A limited number of
copies of this report are available from MESMAC North East,
11 Nelson Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 5AN, England,
Telephone 0191 233 1333 or contact by email.
In 2001, a number
of teachers in schools in the North East of England were
asked about school issues concerning lesbian, gay and bisexual
pupils, including homophobic bullying. Nearly half (47.4%)
of the schools reported homophobic language being used at
least once a week. The most commonly used words were 'gay'
or 'puff', although the point was made that many pupils
were now using the term 'gay' as a general term of abuse,
in many cases no longer specifically referring to a person's
sexuality. Twenty three per cent of the schools were aware
of physical homophobic bullying. While the study found that
many of the schools were aware of lesbian, gay and bisexual
pupils in their school, and of homophobic bullying, only
15% of schools specifically mention homophobic bullying
in their anti-bullying policies. It was also found that
only 18% of schools had been involved in any training on
issues affecting lesbian, gay and bisexual young people,
including homophobic bullying.
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Article details
H Ford (2002) 'Homophobic
Bullying in North East Schools. Summary of Research Findings',
Newcastle Upon Tyne, England: MESMAC North East.
A limited number of
copies of this report are available from MESMAC North East,
11 Nelson Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 5AN, England,
Telephone 0191 233 1333 or contact by email.
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