HOW PUPILS COPE WITH BULLYING:

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HOW PUPILS COPE WITH BULLYING A LONGITUDINAL
STUDY OF SUCCESSFUL AND UNSUCCESSFUL OUTCOMES
Lorenzo Talamelli1, Peter K Smith1, Helen
Cowie2, Paul Naylor2 and Preeti
Chauhan1 1Goldsmiths College, University of
London, and 2University of Surrey Roehampton
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Bullying and social exclusion is widespread
during childhood and adolescence
Some 10-20 of pupils report being the victims of
bullying at school at some time during the last 3
to 6 months
Victims of bullying feel socially anxious,
depressed, lonely and lacking in self-esteem
(Hawker Boulton, 2000)
Self-reported victim rates decrease with age, but
there are some persistent victims who may be
bullied for years
3
Coping strategies used by victims vary in
effectiveness
Fighting back Walking away
Kochenderfer Ladd (1997) - longitudinal study
of 5 to 6 year olds in U.S. kindergarten
Victimization
Telling a teacher Having a friend's help
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Coping strategies used by victims vary in
effectiveness
Salmivalli, Karhunen Lagerspetz (1996) - 12-13
year old Finnish pupils
Nonchalance
More constructive
Counter-aggression Helplessness
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Coping strategies used by victims vary in
effectiveness
Protective factors
Hodges et al. 1999 Boulton et al. 1999
Friends (quality and number)
Peer acceptance
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Victims often do not seek help
Smith and Shu (2000) found that around 30 of
bullied pupils remained silent about their
experience
In schools where there was a formalised system of
peer support, the percentage of bullied pupils
who said that they did not report the bullying
was only 14 (Naylor et al., in press)
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Sample

• Earlier survey Naylor Cowie (51 UK schools
  with an established Peer Support System)
• 35 school agreed to participate
• 264 former victims of bullying (now in Yr 9 and
  Yr 11)
• 264 former non-victims of the same schools were
  matched by age and gender (and, where possible,
  ethnicity)
• Final sample of 413 pupils (204 former V, 209
  former NV)

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Measures

• Structured interview (face to face, 20-25
  minutes)
• Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
  (Goodman, 1997) students and teachers versions
• Attendance (first 104 sessions)

• Pupils liking of school, number and quality of
  friendships
• Definition of bullying and description of a
  witnessed incident
• Description of a personal experience of
  victimization occurred over the last 2 years
• Knowledge and perceived effectiveness of the Peer
  Support System in the school
• General opinions about bullying (reasons, advice
  to give, possible actions if witnessed)

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Measures

• Structured interview (face to face, 20-25
  minutes)
• Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
  (Goodman, 1997) students and teachers versions
• Attendance (first 104 sessions)

• Emotional problems
• Conduct problems
• Hyperactivity
• Peer problems
• Prosocial behaviour

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Victim status groups
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Content Analysis
Types of Bullying

• Direct verbal abuse (128)
• Physical bullying (66)
• General (non-specific) bullying (41)
• Indirect bullying (14)
• Imbalance of power (11)
• Taking belongings (10)
• Social exclusion (8)
• Dont know/cant remember (5)

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Content Analysis
Coping strategies

• Talk to someone (115)
• Ignore it (73)
• Stick up for yourself (67)
• Avoid, stay away from the bully (42)
• More/different friends (37)
• Fight back (14)
• Different behaviour/attitude (6)
• Conditional (10)

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Content Analysis
Reasons for victimisation

• VICTIM-RELATED (81)
• Victim characteristics (43)
• Victim behaviour (26)
• Victim loneliness (12)
• RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BULLY AND VICTIM (37)
• BULLY-RELATED (39)
• Bully emotional gains (19)
• Bully social gains (5)
• Bully physical gains (3)

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RESULTS
Comparison of three groups
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RESULTS
Comparison of three groups
Significant interaction Female V-Vs score less
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RESULTS
Significant interaction V-V Girls differ from
the other two groups NV-NV Boys differ from the
other two
Comparison of three groups
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
NV-NV V-NV V-V sign.

• EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS (self) 2.48
  2.95 4.40 plt.0001
  (teacher) 1.30 1.87 2.52
  plt.001
• CONDUCT PROBLEMS (self) 1.89
  1.92 2.24 X
  (teacher) 0.90 1.35 1.66
  plt.02
• HYPERACTIVITY (self) 3.66
  3.86 4.34 X
  
  (teacher) 2.48 2.99 3.80
  plt.01
• PEER PROBLEMS (self) 1.41
  1.97 2.74 plt.0001 (teacher)
  1.30 1.78 2.73
  plt.0001
• PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR (self) 7.20
  7.37 7.66 X
  (teacher) 7.12 6.63 6.48
  X

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RESULTS
Comparison of two groups V-NV V-V
Types of Bullying No significant differences by
victim status Coping strategies More V-NV
reported talking to someone about it (plt.01) and
getting more/different friends (plt.05) Reasons
for victimisation Victim-related reasons
(especially characteristics and behaviour) much
more frequent than bully-related reasons.
NV-NV V-NV
Hypothetical coping strategies NV-NV more likely
to report that they would talk to someone (78.9
vs. 68.4). plt.05 V-NV more likely to report they
would ignore it (19.1 vs. 10.5) and stick up
for themselves (27.2 vs. 17.0). plt.05
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To summarize...
enjoyment of school, attendance, friendship, SDQ
V-V
V-NV NV-NV

• Like less other pupils and breaktime
• Miss school more often
• Have fewer friends at school
• Have poor quality of friendship
• Score more on Peer Problems and Emotional
  Problems (self and teacher rated SDQ)
• Score more on Conduct Problems and Hyperactivity
  (teacher rated SDQ)
• and one third admit to have bullied others

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To summarize...
enjoyment of school, attendance, friendship, SDQ
V-NV
NV-NV

• Like less other pupils and breaktime
• Miss school more often
• Have fewer friends at school
• Have poor quality of friendship
• Score more on Peer Problems and Emotional
  Problems (self and teacher rated SDQ)
• Score more on Conduct Problems and Hyperactivity
  (teacher rated SDQ)
• and one third admit to have bullied others

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To summarize...
Coping strategies, Reasons
V-V
V-NV

• Less likely to talk to someone
• Dont try to have more/different friends
• More often try to ignore it
• Often blame themselves for being bullied

More likely to talk to s.o. Try to have
more/different friends
V-NV

• Recommend to talk to s.o.
• Dont recommend to ignore it or stick up for
  themselves
• Often suggest conditional coping strategies

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Ways to help...

• Encouragement to tell (with effective response by
  the person told)
• Training in assertiveness skills (not ignoring,
  or blaming oneself)
• Training in friendship skills (including peer
  support schemes)