Bullying in schools Bullying KEN REVISED AND UPDATED Bullying is now widely recognised as a serious problem that aff ects many children in schools. It can take many forms, including direct verbal and physical harassment and indirect forms such as deliberate exclusion and the targeting of individuals using cyber technology. Continual and severe bullying can cause both short term and long term damage making it diffi cult for victims to form intimate relationships Bullying with others and for habitual bullies to avoid following a delinquent lifestyle and becoming perpetrators of domestic violence. Even though this type of abuse aff ects many of our school children, Ken Rigby believes there are grounds for optimism. Th is passionate and motivating book shows that there are ways of reducing the likelihood in schools of bullying occurring in a school and eff ective ways of tackling cases when they do occur. Using up-to-date studies, Bullying in Schools helps us to under stand RIGBY and what the nature of bullying and why it so often takes place in schools. Importantly, it examines and evaluates what schools can do to promote more positive peer relationships within the school community and to do take eff ective and sustainable action to deal with problems that may arise. Teachers, parents, school leaders, policy makers, and health professionals will fi nd it invaluable and empowering. about it Ken Rigby, PhD is a leading international expert in the fi eld of bullying. He is a psychologist and a qualifi ed teacher and guidance offi cer, currently engaged as Adjunct Research Professor and educational consultant based at the University of South Australia. He has published widely and presented papers both nationally and internationally and undertaken numerous consultancies for state and national governments on school bullying. ISBN 978-0-86431-447-5 9 780864 314475 KEN RIGBY BullyingBookFinal.qxd 19/9/07 12:45 PM Page i Bullying in Schools: and what to do about it Revised and updated BullyingBookFinal.qxd 19/9/07 12:45 PM Page ii For my children, Kim, Simon, Shaun and Ella and their mother, Jean BullyingBookFinal.qxd 19/9/07 12:45 PM Page iii Bullying in Schools: and what to do about it Revised and updated Ken Rigby ACER Press BullyingBookFinal.qxd 19/9/07 12:45 PM Page iv First published 2007 by ACER Press, an imprint of Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd 19 Prospect Hill Road, Camberwell Victoria, 3124, Australia This edition published 2007 www.acerpress.com.au [email protected] Text © Ken Rigby 2007 Design and typography © ACER Press 2007 This book is copyright. All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia and subsequent amendments, and any exceptions permitted under the current statutory licence scheme administered by Copyright Agency Limited (www.copyright.com.au), no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, broadcast or communicated in any form or by any means, optical, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. Edited by Elisa Webb Cover design by Lauren Statham Text design by John van Loon Printed in Australia by BPA Print Group National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data: Rigby. Ken. Bullying in schools: and what to do about it. Bibliography. Includes index. ISBN 0 86431 184 2. 1. Bullying – Australia. 2. School discipline – Australia. I. Australian Council for Educational Research. II. Title. 371.58 The author wishes to thank the authors and publishers who have given permission to reproduce the following copyrighted works: p. 8, Where humans can’t leave and mustn’t complain, by Les Murray, reprinted by permission of the author; p. 10, photograph by Duke Dinh, Sunday Age (13/4/1995), reproduced by permission of the photographer and David Syme & Co. Ltd; p. 69, from ‘Original Sin on the Sussex Coast’, in Collected Works by John Betjeman (1960), reprinted by permission of John Murray (Publishers) Ltd; p. 77, ‘My parents kept me from children who were rough’, in Collected Poems. 1928–85 by Stephen Spender, reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber; p. 110, Figure 6.1 from ‘Sweden’ by Dan Olweus (1999), The Nature of School Bullying, London: Routledge, reproduced by permission of the author; pp. 131 & 188, from Only playing, Miss, by P. Casdagli, P. Gobey & C. Griffin (1990), Trentham Books, London, reprinted by permission of the author, Penny Casdagli; p. 177, Cooperation, reproduced with permission of Quaker Peace and Service, Friends House, London, NW1, 2BJ; p. 117, ‘The ubiquitous pecking order’, reproduced with permission from the artist; pp. 245–8, adapted from ‘Cultivating the art of self-defence among victimised children’, by Sonia Sharp & Ken Rigby (1993), in the International Journal of Protective Behaviours 1(2), reprinted by permission of the Editor, International Journal of Protective Behaviours, and Sonia Sharp; p. 252, ‘Warning Signs’, adapted from Bullying: Another Form of Abuse by J. Dawkins & P. Hill (1995), in Recent Advances in Paediatrics, 13, (T.J. David ed.), Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, reproduced by permission of Judith Dawkins; p. 288, ‘Taking Steps’, from Teaching Students to be Peacemakers, by D. & R. Johnson (1991), Interaction Books Co., Minnesota, reproduced by permission of the authors. BullyingBookFinal.qxd 19/9/07 12:45 PM Page v Contents Figures and tables vi Illustrations and models viii Preface to the Revised Edition x Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 PART ONE: Understanding Bullying 9 Chapter 1 Bullying today 11 Chapter 2 What is going on in schools? 24 Chapter 3 Consequences of bullying 48 Chapter 4 Understanding bullying 67 Chapter 5 The school ethos 94 Chapter 6 Further light on understanding bullying 109 PART TWO: What Can Be Done? 123 Chapter 7 Linking understanding to practice 124 Chapter 8 Getting started 129 Chapter 9 School policy on bullying 142 Chapter 10 Gaining student support 154 Chapter 11 Where it happens 182 Chapter 12 Finding out about bullying 197 Chapter 13 What to do with the bully 206 Chapter 14 Humanistic approaches to bullying 213 Chapter 15 Supporting the victim 236 Chapter 16 Parents, teachers and families 251 Chapter 17 More recent developments 263 Chapter 18 Students as peer helpers 279 Chapter 19 Epilogue 306 References 309 Resources on bullying 319 Subject index 325 Author index 329 BullyingBookFinal.qxd 19/9/07 12:45 PM Page vi Figures and tables Figures Figure 2.1 Percentages of students aged 10–17 in South Australian coeducational schools claiming to have been bullied at least once a week 36 Figure 2.2 Relative proportions of three kinds of bullying reported ‘sometimes or more often’ by boys and girls in three age groups 39 Figure 2.3 Percentages of students claiming that they had bullied others ‘more than once or twice’ as part of a group or alone 42 Figure 5.1 Relationship between students’ attitudes to peer victimisation and age 98 Figure 6.1 The relationship between aggression, violence and physical bullying 110 Figure 6.2 The distribution of bullying severity 112 Figure 6.3 Reported victimisation of Australian school children (Years 4–12) for those starting secondary school at Year 7 (early transfer) and in Year 8 (later transfer) 116 Figure 6.4 The ubiquitous pecking order 117 Figure 10.1 Percentages of students interested in talking about the problem of bullying at school with other students according to age 156 Figure 11.1 Percentages of students indicating that they had noticed bullying going on in four places 183 Figure 17.1 Suggested stages in responding to possible bullying 265 Figure 17.2 The bystander situation 267 Figure 17.3 Bystanders observing bullying 268 Tables Table 1.1 A classification of forms of bullying 20 Table 2.1 Forms of bullying experienced ‘often’ during the school year 34 Table 2.2 Incidence of reported victimisation BullyingBookFinal.qxd 19/9/07 12:45 PM Page vii among school children 35 Table 2.3 Percentages of calls about bullying received by Kids Help Line, according to age group 37 Table 2.4 Percentages of children claiming to have been bullied ‘often’ by individuals or groups, in coeducational primary and secondary schools in South Australia 40 Table 2.5 Gender of the bully or bullies: percentages in each category 40 Table 2.6 Percentages of students aged 13–15 years reporting being bullied ‘at least once a week’ at eight coeducational schools 41 Table 2.7 Perceived safety of the school for vulnerable students 44 Table 2.8 Perceived school safety at eight coeducational high schools 45 Table 3.1 Percentages of secondary school students indicating worse than usual health on General Health Questionnaire indices, according to self-identified status as victim (V) or non-victim (NV) of peer bullying at school 55 Table 5.1 How bullying others makes school children feel: percentages of students endorsing selected statements about bullying 95 Table 5.2 Whether students would tell if bullied daily 100 Table 10.1 Attitudes towards cooperation among high school students 169 Table 12.1 Percentages of students who told someone after being bullied 198 Table 16.1 Warning signs that a child is being bullied at school 252 Table 18.1 A classification of peer helping roles 281 BullyingBookFinal.qxd 19/9/07 12:45 PM Page viii Illustrations and models Photographs (i) Intimidation 10 (ii) Only playing, Miss! 188 Cartoon figures and drawings (i) Children’s illustrations of bullying (8 drawings) 27 (ii) Wonderful news: my son’s a bully! 76 (iii) Children make policy 160–1 (iv) Cooperation 177 (v) When do you need a Safety House? 195 (vi) Taking steps to resolve conflict: building a bridge 288 Models 4.1 Model of factors influencing children’s peer relations 70 10.1 To help or not to help 178 viii BullyingBookFinal.qxd 19/9/07 12:45 PM Page ix Acknowledgements This book is based to a large degree upon studies I have undertaken, sometimes with others, in Australia over the last 18 years.