Essay

BULLYING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, m G H SCHOOL, AND COLLEGE Mark S. Chapell, Stefanie L. Hasselman, Theresa Kitchin, Safiya N. Lomon, Kenneth W. Maclver, and Patrick L. Sarullo ABSTRACT This study investigated the continuity in being a bully, victim, or bully-victim from elementary school through college in 119 undergraduates. Of 25 who bullied in college, 18 (72%) had been bulHed in high school and elementary school. Of 26 bullies in college, 14 (53.8%) had been bullies in high school and elementary school. Of 12 bully-victims in college, 5 (41.6%) had been bullyvictims in high school and elementary school. There were significant positive correlations between being a bully in college, high school, and elementary school, and being bullied in college and high school, and high school and elementary school, and between being both a bully and victim in elementary school, a bully and victim in high school, and a bully and victim in college. Research on bullying began in Europe in the 1970s, led by Dan Olweus (1978), who continues to be the foremost international authority on bullying. To date, almost all research on bullying done internationally and in the United States has focused on bullying in elementary school, middle school, and high school. A review of this research shows that bullying and victimization is most common in elementary school and becomes progressively less common by the end of high school (Nansel et al., 2001; Smith et al., 1999), with rates of bullied students decreasing from 14% of American 6th graders to only 2% of the 12th graders (Devoe et al., 2004). Chapell et al. (2004) explored bullying in college in a sample of 1,025 undergraduates, and found that bullying is common in college graduates from high school to college, vdth 18.5% of undergraduates reporting having been bullied by a student once or twice, 5% having been bulhed by students occasionally, and 1.1% very frequently. This finding is consistent with the growing empirical literature that has shown that Mark S. Chapell, Stefanie L. Hassehnan, Theresa Kitchin, Safiya N. Lomon, Kenneth W. Maclver, Patrick L. Sarullo, Department of Psychology, Rowan University. Send requests for reprints to Mark S. Chapell, Department of Psychology, Robinson Hall, Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey 08028. E-mail: chapell@rowan.edu ADOLESCENCE, VoL 41, No. 164, Winter 2006 Libra Publishers, inc., 3089C Ctairemont Dr., PMB 383, San Diego, CA 92117 adults bully adults in the workplace in the United States and other countries (Cooper, Einarsen, Hoel, & Zapf, 2003; Glendenning, 2001; Vega & Comer, 2005), including bullying of faculty in the academic workplace (Craft, 2002; Halbur, 2005; Lewis, 2004; Nelson & Lambert, 2001; Simpson & Cohen, 2004; Westhues, 2005, 2006). One important area of bullying research that has not been well investigated is the stability of being a bully or being bulliedfromelementary school onward, and the primary purpose of the present study is to investigate the continuity of buUjdng and victimizationfromelementary school through high school and college. Sourander, Helstela, Helenius, and Rha (2000) conducted an 8-year longitudinal study tracking bullying and victimization in Finnish students from ages 8 to 16, and found that bullying at age 8 was associated with bullying at age 16, and being bullied at age 8 was associated with being bullied at 16. Schafer, Kom, Brodbeck, Wolke, and Schulz (2005) conducted a 6-year longitudinal study following German 2nd-3rd graders through 7th-8th grade, and found that bullying in elementary school but not victimization was likely to be continued at the later age. Olweus (1993) conducted a foUowup at age 23 of a longitudinal study with a small number of students who had been bullied between grades 6 and 9, and reported that, "The first important result to report is a lack of relationship between indicators of victimization in school and data on both direct and indirect harassment in young adulthood" (p. 330). Schafer et al. (2004) conducted a retrospective study of 884 Spanish, British, and German adults, and found that 248 had been buUied at school; and of these, 71 had been victimized in both primary and secondary school. Smith, Singer, Hoel, and Cooper (2003) conducted a retrospective study in which 5,288 British working adults reported whether they had been bullied in school and whether they were being bullied at their jobs, and found a positive relationship between having been buUied in school and being bullied in the adult workplace. Those who had been both bullies and victims in school were even more likely to be bullied as adults at work. The second focus of the current study is to compare sex differences in thefrequencyof being bullies, victims, and bully-victims in elementary school, high school, and college. American male students have been found to bully and be bullied more than female students in elementary school and high school (Nansel et al., 2001; Seals & Young, 2003) and males were found to have consistently been bullied more than females in many national American studies (DeVoe et al., 2003, 2005). Chapell et al. (2004) found that American male college students bullied more than female students, but were equally victimized. Juvonen, Graham, 634 and Schuster (2003) reported that in their sample of 1,985 American 6th graders, boys were over three times more likely to be classified as bully-victims than were girls, and Brockenbrough, Cornell, and Loper (2002) found that in their sample of 8,273 American middle school and high school students, males were six times more likely to be bullyvictims than were female students. This study also investigates sex differences in the types of bullying used by bullies and experienced by victims in elementary school, high school, and college. According to Olweus (1999), there are two main types of bullying: direct bullying, in the form of physical or verbal attacks, and indirect bullying, or relational/social bullying in the form of deliberate social exclusion or isolation. Olweus (1993a) reported that in a sample of over 80,000 Norwegian children, there was more verbal bullying in boys and girls from 2nd grade through 9th grade than physical bulljdng, and that physical bullying was more common among boys than girls. In their national study, Nansel et al. (2001) found that verbal bullying was common in both American boys and girls, and that American boys did more physical bullying than girls. Girls engage in more indirect or social bullying than boys, a finding that has been replicated in many countries (Smith et al., 1999). The final focus of this study is on bullying by college teachers and coaches. Chapell et al. (2004) found that 19.2% of 1,025 students had been bullied by teachers in college, 14.5% once or twice, 4.2% occasionally, and .5% very frequently. In addition to reporting the overall level of bullying by college teachers, the current study explores the types of bullying college teachers use: verbal, physical, and social. This study also explores buUsdng by college coaches and reports the types of bullying they use. There is very little research on bullying by college coaches, but some college coaches such as Bob Knight (Walton, 2000) have been described as bullies. METHOD Participants A total of 119 undergraduates from a large eastern university (62 female, 57 male, including 21 freshmen, 28 sophomores, 20 juniors, and 48 seniors; M = 21.1 yrs., SD = 3.4 yrs.) participated voluntarily in this partially retrospective study. This sample of convenience was composed of 98 European Americans (82.3%), 10 African Americans (8.4%), 5 students of multiple ethnicity (4.2%), 4 Hispanic Americans (3.4%), and 2 Asian Americans (1.7%). 635 Materials Participants were first administered a questionnaire including questions about age, sex, year in school, ethnicity, and cumulative college grade point average (M = 3.11, SD = .50), followed by a 32-item bullying self-report questionnaire. This questionnaire followed the model of the most widely used bull3dng instrument, the Olweus BuUyA^ictim Questionnaire (1996), by first presenting a definition of bulljdng based on Olweus's (1999) widely accepted definition of bullying by students. Olweus (1999) conceptualizes bullying as being characterized by three criteria: "(1) It is aggressive behavior or intentional harmdoing (2) which is carried out repeatedly and over time (3) in an interpersonal relationship characterized by an imbalance of power" (p. 11), and he defines school bullying as, "A student is being bullied or victimized when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more students" (p. 10). Olweus operationalizes bullying using three forms of negative actions by students: direct verbal attacks (using mean and harmful words and names), direct physical attacks (hitting, kicking, shoving), and more indirect methods, such as intentionally isolating or excluding someone from a group. This definition was adapted to include the contingency of bullying by college teachers and coaches: "As a student you are being bullied when someone who is more powerful than you repeatedly tries to hurt you by: (1) attacking you verbally, using harmful words, names, or threats, (2) attacking you physically, (3) intentionally isolating you or excluding you from a social group." This definition was followed by questions about bullying or being bullied by students in college, high school, and elementary school, to which participants answered using one of four response alternatives, with scores ranging from 0 to 3: Never = 0; Only once or twice = 1; Occasionally = 2; Very frequently = 3. At each level of school, participants were also asked to identify the type of bulljdng they had committed or experienced: verbal, physical, and social, using the same four response alternatives. Similar questions were asked about having been bullied by college teachers and college coaches and the types of bullying they used, applying the same four response alternatives. Procedure Participants were recruited on campus, and informed consent forms and questionnaires were administered by students trained and supervised by the first author. The exclusive administration of questionnaires by students was done to reduce bias that might arise due to the questions about bulljdng by college teachers and coaches. 636 RESULTS Table 1 presents the percentages of bullies and bullied in college, high school, and elementary school. It was found that there is more bulljdng in elementary school than high school, and more bullying in high school than college, which is consistent with the literature cited above which shows a reduction in bulljdng with age. Table 1 Percentages of Bullies and Bullied in College, High School, and Elementary School Responses Never Once or Twice Occasionally Very Frequently College Bullies Total Male Female Bullied Total Male Female 93 43 50 94 45 49 78.2 75.4 80.7 79.0 79.0 79.0 23 13 10 17 6 11 19.3 22.8 16.1 14.3 10.5 17.8 3 1 2 6 5 1 2.5 1.8 3.2 5.0 8.8 1.6 0 0 0 2 1 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.7 1.7 1.6 Hi oh School Bullies Total Male Female Bullied Total Male Female 56 27 29 40 15 25 47.1 47.4 46.8 33.6 26.3 40.3 50 24 26 58 29 29 42.0 42.1 41.9 48.7 50.9 46.8 12 6 6 18 U 7 10.1 10.5 9.7 15.1 19.3 11.3 1 0 1 3 2 1 0.8 0.0 1.6 2.5 3.5 1.6 Elementary School Bullies Total Male Female Bullied Total Male Female 68 33 35 43 16 27 57.1 57.9 56.5 36.1 28.1 43.5 41 20 21 46 22 24 34.5 35.1 33.9 38.7 38.6 38.7 9 4 5 22 13 9 7.6 7.0 8.0 18.5 22.8 14.5 1 0 1 8 6 2 0.8 0.0 1.6 6.7 10.5 3.2 637 Table 2 shows that there was a significant positive correlation between having been a bully in elementary school, high school, and college, a positive correlation between having been bullied in college and in high school, and a positive correlation between having been bullied in high school and elementary school. There was a significant positive correlation between having been both a bully and a victim of bullying in elementary school, a significant positive correlation between having been a bully and victim in high school, and a significant positive correlation between having been a bully and a victim in college. Additionally, of 25 who were bullied in college, 18 (72%) were also bullied in high school and elementary school. Of 26 bullies in college, 14 (53.8%) had also been bullies in high school and elementary school. Finally, there were 12 bully-victims in college, and 5 of these (41.6%) had also been bully-victims in high school and elementary school. There were no significant sex differences in being a bully or bullyvictim in college, high school or elementary school. Male students were not bullied more than females students in college, but males were bullied significantly more than females in high school, F(l, 117) = 4.53, p < .05, Ti^ = .04, and elementary school, F(l, 117) = 4.57, p < .05, Ti^ = .038 (according to Cohen, 1988, ti^ effect sizes of .01 are small, .06 are medium, and .14 are large). Table 2 Intercorrelations Among Age. GPA, and 8 Bullying Questions 1 1. Age 2. GPA 3. Bullied in College 4. Bully in College 5. Bullied by College Teacher 6. Bullied by College Coach 7. Bullied in High School 8. Bully in High School 9. Bullied in Elementary School 10. Bully in Elementary School *p