Increased Risk of Bullying for Children: Schools Need Better Preventive Measures

Jaana Juvonen and Sandra Graham of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) have conducted the most extensive research on the subject of bullying in K-12 schools. Their findings, while informative, are very disheartening.

The researchers examined over 140 studies from the U.S., UK, Australia, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. They found that schools issue a lot of "Band-Aid" solutions that don't carry a long enough effect to actually prevent bullying. Additionally, cyberbullying remains an issue because it occurs outside of school and some administrators don't feel it's their responsibility to monitor that.

Bullying, according to StopBullying.gov, is defined as the "unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance." Different types of bullying include verbal, social, physical, and cyber.

Juvonen and Graham's most recent review was published in the journal Annual Review of Psychology. They included a number of findings: boys and girls use the same bullying tactics; gay, lesbian, and overweight students are bullied most; and friendless students are more likely to get bullied. For the most part, they found that comprehensive bullying programs were very costly and require a large staff, so they're hard to implement and maintain.

Juvonen dug deeper in analyzing the anti-bullying programs, which are typically evaluated based on whether or not they reduce bullying on school grounds. She believes that it could be more helpful and revealing if it is determined how much the schools are helping those who are severely and most frequently bullied. Because some incidents that reach the attention of authoritative figures can be infrequent bullying occurrences. When they're solved they can consider it a "reduction" in the number of incidents, when in reality, those who are affected more frequently continue to be abused.

Cyberbullying is also a major concern because it can occur at any hour of the day and can reach more victims in a greater magnitude. And that abuse carries over onto school grounds and can have lasting and overreaching effects.

"Students who have been cyberbullied at night often don't come to school the next day, or they come late or are not focused," said Juvonen in a news release. "There is a very strong association between what happens in cyberspace and what happens on the school grounds. Many of the same students who are bullied in school are also cyberbullied."

Government statistics from the CDC and NCES have found that 20% of those in grades 9-12 are bullied along with 28% in grades 6-12.