CONTENTS

About This Course

Table of Contents

1. School Bullying: What It Is and Why It Hurts
2. The Role of Bullies, Victims, and Witnesses
3. Factors Contributing to Bullying and Violence
4. Screening and Assessment
5. Treatment For Children and Adolescents
6. Prevention and Intervention
7. Legal and Ethical Issues

Supplements
Case Studies
Fact Sheets
References
Resources

The ABCs of Bullying
Addressing, Blocking, and Curbing School Aggression

Methods of Bullying

Children and adolescents may use a variety of methods to hurt one another. The most well known form of bullying is physical aggression. This may include hitting, kicking, punching, or destruction of property. Verbal bullying may include teasing, name-calling, and taunting a child to make him or her angry. Physical and verbal bullying are both considered direct forms of bullying.

There also are indirect forms of bullying. Examples include spreading rumors, excluding others from a group, and enlisting someone else to assault someone for the bully.

Role of Gender

Researchers are still examining the role of gender in bullying and aggression. When it comes to bullying, both girls and boys bully, although the methods may differ. Research has suggested that males are more likely than females to be violent and to physically bully both other boys and girls.ref^, ref Some research has shown that boys tend to be physically aggressive and are more easily provoked by physical behavior. Girls, however, tend to be relationally aggressive with other girls and are provoked by that behavior, not physical behavior.ref

Males	Aggression	Females
	Place your mouse over either of the figures to see what their bullying tendancies are.

Relational aggression involves attacking the relationships of people and hurting people's self-esteem. It is subtler and involves behaviors such as spreading rumors, withholding friendships, ignoring, gossiping, or excluding a child from a small group of friends.ref^, ref More focused research is needed to investigate the impact of gender on school bullying and youth violence.

Traditionally, aggression has been accepted by society for boys and men. In school, aggression may be rewarded for boys. As reflected by the social status of peer groups for boys in middle and high school, aggressive boys tend to hold higher status among their peers. Aggression in girls, however, is not as accepted or as well studied as aggression in boys. Overall, physical aggression has received the greatest attention from researchers, educators, and parents when examining the consequences of bullying.

Most females engage in comparatively low levels of aggression, thereby popularizing the notion that females are less aggressive than males.ref With closer study, however, it appears that the nature of the aggression differs from that of their male peers. Female youth practice what has been called "relational" aggression.ref This covers behaviors such as:ref

• Manipulating one's relationships with peers;
• Purposefully ignoring someone when angry (giving the "silent treatment");
• Spreading hurtful rumors or talking about someone; and
• Telling others not to play with or talk to a certain classmate as a means of retaliation.

In each of the above examples, social relationships are used as the vehicle for harming a peer, not physical acts. Both physical and relational victimization have been found to predict certain social and psychological adjustment problems (e.g., peer rejection, loneliness) beyond aggression.ref This could be described as using a more indirect approach to bullying.