Bullying and Victimization Among Canadian School Children

4. Discussion

This study examined the prevalence of bullying and victimization in Canada, and the individual and family factors contributing to these behaviours. The results indicate that a significant number of children in Canada experience bullying and victimization at school. In addition, bullying others was not associated with being victimized by others. Finally, children who were involved in bullying others had other related mental health problems (i.e., externalizing and internalizing problems). Specifically, bullying others was related to externalizing problems, while being victimized by others was related to both internalizing and externalizing problems. The associations among externalizing and internalizing problems and bullying and victimization were different for boys and girls at different ages. Finally, family factors (i.e., demographics and family functioning) were indirectly related to bullying and victimization.

4.1 National Trends of Bullying and Victimization

In Canada, about one in seven boys between the ages of 4 and 11 (14%) bully others and approximately one in 20 (5%) are victimized by others sometimes or very often. Approximately one in 11 girls between the ages of 4 and 11 (9%) bully others, while one in fourteen are victimized (7%). For both boys and girls, however, victimization increased with age. At all ages, there was a higher percentage of boys compared to girls involved in bullying. More girls aged seven to nine reported being victimized compared to boys. For the youngest and oldest age groups, boys and girls were equally likely to be victimized. These percentages of bullying and victimization are comparable to those reported from other countries. For example, in Norway, in a nation-wide survey, 15% of students reported involvement in bully/victim problems "now and then" or more frequently. In Great Britain, Stephenson and Smith (1989) found that 23% of children in their British sample were either bullies or victims. The prevalence of bullying and victimization in Canada highlight the need to design and implement effective interaction programs.

For children aged 10 and 11 years old, there were some differences between the parents' reports of bullying and children's self reports. Compared to parents' reports, a higher percentage of boys reported bullying others or being bullied. For girls, the percentages of bullying and victimization were relatively similar to parents' reports. Since aggression is more atypical of girls, it may that parents may be more likely to be aware of their daughters bullying than their sons. With respect to victimization, compared to boys, girls may be more willing to tell parents when it occurs, consequently parents' reports are similar to the self reports from girls. One aspect of intervention programs to combat bullying and victimization should be increasing parents' awareness of bullying and victimization behaviours in both boys and girls, as well as associated behaviour problems.

4.2 Individual Factors Contributing to Bullying and Victimization

There are some important trends emerging from this cross-sectional data. First, for both boys and girls of all ages, bullying and victimization were not related to each other. Children who bully others tend not victimized by others. Similarly, children who are victimized tend not to bully others. Thus, programs should be designed that are specifically aimed for bullies and for victims since they may display different types of problematic behaviours. In addition, since there are different children who are bullies are victims, the number of children that are involved in bullying and victimization in Canada is particularly of concern.

Second, for both boys and girls at all ages, bullying was associated with externalizing problems, but not internalizing problems. Thus, children who bully are also displaying other antisocial behaviours such as physical aggression, indirect aggression, hyperactivity, and engaging in property crimes, as well as demonstrating few prosocial behaviours. Bullying may be one of many types of aggressive and antisocial behaviour that these children display. Children who bully have a significant number of overt problem behaviours that may be easily identified. The negative short and long term prognosis associated with these types of behaviours highlights the need for early identification of these children.

Third, for boys and girls of all ages, victimization was associated with both externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems. Children who are victimized are characterized by the behaviour problems that bullies experience as well as internalizing problems such as anxiety, depression, unhappiness, and emotional problems. Children who have internalizing problems are more easily aroused (Rubin, Coplan, Fox, & Clakins, 1995) and may have difficulty in regulating their emotional expressions and as a result may manifest this problem with heightened anxiety which may lead to further victimization. In fact, the high anxiety in children with internalizing problems may make them particularly susceptible to displaying extreme emotional reactions. Evidence does support this reactivity notion in that victims tend to cry easily, are manifestly anxious, lack humour, lack self confidence, and self esteem, and reward their attackers by being submissive (Olweus, 1978, Patterson et al., 1967; Perry et al., 1988).

In addition, for older children, the strength of the association between externalizing problems and victimization increased with age suggesting that with increasing age, these problems are both likely to present. Thus, victims have significantly more problems than bullies and a more intensive intervention may be required for them. The problematic behaviour of victims is also more diverse than bullies and may not be as easily identified. For example, since internalizing problems such as anxiety and depression are not readily observable, they may be more likely to go undetected compared to externalizing behaviours such as aggression and disruptive behaviour. Furthermore, research has demonstrated that despite that fact that one in three children report their primary fear is abuse at the hands of their peers, they are unlikely to report such behaviour to an adult (Olweus, 1991).

It is important to note that from this cross-sectional data, it is not possible to determine if the externalizing or internalizing problems developed before the bullying or victimization behaviours. It may be that children who are bullied become aggressive as a consequence of their own experiences of being victimized. Alternatively, some victims may be bullied because they are aggressive towards others. Researchers have found that aggressive victims are more likely to display a hostile style of interaction, are disruptive, aggressive, and argumentative (Perry et al., 1988). These behaviours may serve to irritate and provoke other children, especially bullies, and may lead to future victimization. Future longitudinal research will allow for an examination of these types of issues.

4.3 Family Factors Contributing to Bullying and Victimization

Family demographics and family socialization processes had an indirect on bullying and victimization. Low socioeconomic status, unemployment, and being young parents was related to negative parenting practises and externalizing behaviour problems in children. It is likely that family stress (as measured by family socioeconomic status) contributes to few positive and increased hostile interactions between parents and their children, and inconsistent and harsh punishment practises. These types of interactions may serve to perpetuate aggressive behaviour and bullying through several processes. First, a parent who is aggressive toward her children models aggression and the combined use of aggression and power. Secondly, through coercive parenting practices parents train their children in the use of antisocial behaviours (Patterson, 1982). Thirdly, harsh parenting practices promote children to develop hostile attitudes and orientations to others in their social environments. The aggressive behaviours may then generalized to the school where they are manifested in the form of bullying and other aggressive behaviours. These family processes are likely occurring in the families of bullies.

Family demographics also may have an indirect effect on victimization. As in the case of bullying, children who are victimized may come from homes where there are few positive interactions, many hostile interactions, and harsh and inconsistent punishment practises. These negative interactions in the home may contribute to the development of victimization. There is evidence to suggest that children who develop victimization problems are more likely than nonvictimized peers to have family histories of insecure attachment, child abuse, and poor managed family conflict (Perry, Perry, & Kennedy, 1992). These children may enter school with significant exposure to aggressive, angry, and conflictual situations in the home and may react to peers who bully them with similarly high anxiety. This behaviour may contribute to their continued victimization as the bully will feel rewarded in triumphing over the victim.

The role of family processes on bullying and victimization are influenced by the age and sex of the children. For example, for boys, the association between family functioning and externalizing behaviours (which are related to both bullying and victimization) decreased for the 10 and 11 year olds. For girls, there were no age differences in this association. Thus, for boys the influence of negative family interactions on externalizing problems and bullying becomes less salient with age whereas as for girls the influence of the family functioning remains constant with age. In contrast, for girls, the association between family functioning and internalizing behaviour (which is related to victimization) increased for the 10 and 11 year olds. For boys, there were no age differences in this association. Taken together, these results indicate that it may be that the indirect effect of family socialization on externalizing behaviours problems is stronger for younger boys and the indirect effect of the family on internalizing problems and victimization is more important for girls than boys. The indirect role on family demographics and functioning on bullying and victimization highlight the importance of supporting families in order to decrease bullying and victimization.

4.4 Limitations of the Research

There are some limitations to the present study. The results are based on cross sectional data. Longitudinal research is needed to test the developmental pathways to bullying and victimization. In addition, longitudinal research will allow for the testing of causal models. A second limitation of the research is that reports of bullying and victimization in the model tested were based on parent report. There are discrepancies between adults' and children's reports of bullying and victimization. There is a lower prevalence of these behaviours in responses from adults than responses from children. Finally, all the measures were collected concurrently. It is possible that there are alternative explanations with regards to the direction of the effects. For example, variables we have conceptualized as causing victimization may actually be outcomes of a third untested variable (i.e., history of abuse).

4.5 Social Policy Implications

Bullying and victimization at school is a significant problem in our country. Children who are involved in bullying and victimization are at risk for developing problems later in life such as criminality, school drop out, unemployment, depression, anxiety, and generalized levels of reduced attainment and competence in adulthood (Olweus, 1989). In addition, bullying and victimization and their associated behaviour problems are not only chronic, but are often transmitted across generations (Farrington, 1993). Finally, the monetary costs of chronic involvement in bullying and victimization are high: These children generate life-long costs because they are involved in multiple systems such as the mental health, juvenile justice, special education, and social services. Interrupting this pattern of behaviour is a critical issue. Thus, the implications from this study are important to both the development of social policy and prevention and intervention programs. Both of social policy and prevention/intervention programs should be aimed at direct (i.e., externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems) and indirect (i.e., family demographics, family functioning) influences on bullying and victimization.

Because bullying happens at school, schools need to develop and implement anti-bullying policies. Along with the staff and parents, the principal should implement a policy of zero tolerance for bullying, an appropriate discipline program, and opportunities for professional development for teachers. The principal and school staff can work to develop a school ethos with the aims of changing attitudes towards bullying and creating a school climate that will not tolerate aggressive acts towards fellow students. Preventing bullying in the school can be incorporated into a larger school effort ensuring equity among students (e.g., between sex, among cultural groups). In order to change behaviour patterns and attitudes that underlie bullying and victimization, interventions must be extensive and address the problem with individual bullies and victims, the peer group, the school environment, and the families. Research has indicated that antibullying problems that are ecological in design with an implementation at the school, class, and individual levels are successful in reducing bullying by 50% over three years (Olweus, 1991; Pepler et al., 1993).

Children who are victimized have other mental health problems. These problems, as well as the victimization need to be addressed. The definition of bullying implies that the victim is less powerful than the bully and unable to defend himself/herself. The first step in assisting victims is to encourage them to report bullying incidents so that an adult can intervene. Teachers can provide support for victims to help them develop skills and strategies to avoid further victimization. These include teaching victims when and where to go for help and training victims in the skills of resisting and asserting themselves. Efforts should be made to enhance the self-image of victims, perhaps by providing opportunities for them to achieve attention and recognition within their peer group (e.g., peer pairing).

Interventions with bullies should address their specific deficits. Interventions with bullies should teach empathy, problem-solving, social skills, and self-regulation. To redirect bullying behaviours, the bully might be provided with other means of experiencing leadership in the class and school. Because bullying is also associated with externalizing and internalizing behaviour, these mental health issues also need attention.

The indirect influence of family demographics and family socialization practices on bullying and victimization, underscores the need to address these issues from a policy perspective. First, parents need to be educated and informed about bullying and victimization problems, on the signs of bullying and victimization and ways to talk with their children about any difficulties they might be experiencing. The myths of bullying that are covertly supporting it could be dispelled (e.g., it is a valuable learning experience). The parents have a particularly important role in providing consistency in the approach to bullying problems across school and home contexts. With an awareness of the problem, parents may become increasingly able to recognize when bullying or victimization occurs at home between siblings, between parents and children, or between the parents themselves.

Because of the indirect effect of family factors, resources should be allocated to high risk families, such as those with low income or unemployment. These types of stressors in the family are related to poor parenting practices such as many hostile and few positive interactions with the children and harsh punishment. Programs need to be developed to support not only the child, but the parents. The programs for children could involve individual or group counselling to provide a forum for these children to express their concerns and anxieties, to help them develop appropriate social skills, as well as provide more supervision outside of school. Improving the children's social skills may also reduce the risk of developing both internalizing and externalizing behaviour problems. Programs for the parents could include increased financial resources or support. These could take the forum of the community programs for their children or direct payment to facilitate their ability to financial support their family. In addition, a community based support service could be provided to help the family cope with the stress and help the family develop more positive and prosocial ways of interacting. This service could take a preventive approach where workers could meet regularly with the family and act as information, educational, and emotional support.