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Alarming Rate of Bullying Among School Children

9th February 2018. Reading Time: 1 minutes Bullying. 1046 page views.

Statistics show that 1 in 4 students aged between 8-14 years experience bullying.

Bullying is now widely considered as a systematic abuse of power (Rigby, 2002); that is, the intention of bullying is to put the victim in distress in some way. Bullies seek power. While definitions in the literature vary, especially with new forms of bullying being identified, the majority of definitions include all or most of the following elements:

  • aggression;
  • intentional hurtfulness;
  • abuse of power (asymmetric conflict); and
  • repetition.

Bullying can take place in many forms, including face-to face, written notes and digital media.

The Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study reported that 1 in 4 students (in a sample of 20,832 Australian students aged between 8 and 14 years) reported being bullied every few weeks or more, with the highest prevalence rates being reported by children in Year 5 (age 10-11 years) (Cross et al., 2009).

What can be done?

Surrounding Bullies with protective factors both in the home and at school, may reduce bullying incidences. See more here https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/children-who-bully-school/what-works-bullying-interventions

Check out our Facebook Page which shows a family tribute to Dolly who’s life ended due to the effects of bullying. https://www.facebook.com/heavymetalgroup/

This information was obtained from https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/children-who-bully-school/understanding-school-bullying