Understanding Bullying

Batsche, George M. and Howard M. Knoff (1994). Bullies and Their Victims: Understanding A Pervasive Problem In The Schools, School Psychology Review, 1994, 23, 165-175.

Summary/Analysis:

In this article, Batsche and Knoff talk about school violence in terms of bullying. In their opinion, violence is a growing problem in schools and should be defined "to include any conditions or acts that create a climate in which individual students and teachers feel fear or intimidation in addition to being the victim of assault, theft, or vandalism." This would allow bullying to fall under the umbrella of violence and be addressed in a more serious manner by the school community. It is important for it to be addressed because it is "the most prevalent form of violence in the schools and the form that is likely to affect the greatest number of students."

There is direct and indirect bullying that occurs. Indirect bullying is done more by girls through the use of words while direct bullying is done more by boys through physical actions. This bullying occurs to two main types of victims, the passive and the provocative. It is important to identify the type of victim because the way you help them is different. In addition it is important to understand why the person bullying the victim is doing so. This article also, very briefly, brought up the point that it is important to properly train staff to deal with all types of bullying so that violence does not occur and the school environment is a safe place for all students.

In short, this article provided interesting information on why bullying prevention programs need to occur in schools. Though the information was brief and lacked extreme detail, it was a great starting point to understanding the circumstances of bullying in a school setting.

Most of the information they discuss in this article is from studies done in Scandinavian countries, England, and the United States. No real information other than percentages and generalizations on findings are given about these studies. It is not apparent who took part in these studies or how the data was gathered. In addition, it explained that the trends in Scandinavian countries and England are similar to those in the United States with no real specifics.

Quotes:

-"Therefore, bullying may be the most prevalent form of violence in the schools and the form that is likely to affect the greatest number of students."

-"Bullying is all about control."

-"Boy bullies are three to four times more likely to inflict physical assault than girl bullies (Eron, Huesmann, Dubow, Romanoff, & Yamel, 1987), whereas girls use more ridicule and teasing (Hoover, Oliver, & Hazler, 1992).

Quotes: