10-Year Study Suggests Progress on Bullying

Bullying in U.S. schools appears to be trending downward, according to a report in the June issue of Pediatrics. The study, which analyzed reports of bullying in Maryland schools over a 10-year period, showed a striking drop in the numbers of students who reported experiencing bullying in the past month, from a high of 28.5 percent in 2005 to 13.4 percent in 2014.

The authors noted that very few other studies have followed bullying over multiple years, and virtually none of the large, population-based research has included longitudinal data across 13 indicators of bullying behaviors.

The research team was led by Tracy Evian Waasdorp, Ph.D., M.Ed., a research scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The group gathered reports about bullying from anonymous online surveys of 246,306 students in grades 4 through 12 from 109 Maryland schools within a large public school district. Survey questions included whether the students had experienced bullying in the past month, and if so, the type of bullying experienced; whether they had seen others bullied; and how safe they felt at school. Bullying indicators included such behaviors as physical pushing and hitting to verbal threats and rumors; the survey also asked about perpetrating bullying, witnessing bullying, and retaliating aggressively.

Using longitudinal linear modeling to analyze changes over time, the researchers found that while bullying remains prevalent in schools, 10 of the 13 bullying-related indicators measured suggested positive improvements. Physical, verbal, and relational (having rumors spread) bullying experiences decreased 2 percent each year to below 10 percent in 2014.

The study also found that the number of students who believe adults “do enough to stop” bullying is growing (38.8 percent expressed this opinion in 2005 compared with 71.3 in 2014). More students also reported they feel safe at school (78.6 percent in 2005 compared with 88.5 percent in 2014).

“Rather than being in a crisis mode, the set of indicators is moving in a positive direction,” said study co-author Catherine P. Bradshaw, Ph.D., M.Ed., a professor and associate dean for Research and Faculty Development at the University of Virginia. The findings suggest that “strategies, policies, and increased awareness can make an impact. We need to keep our efforts going and not take our foot off the gas.”

Bullying Prevalence Rates Vary

Tackling bullying remains a top priority for mental health professionals to improve child well-being. There is still a large bullying problem, “and the complexity and impact of bullying may be hard to judge from only examining prevalence rates,” Stephen S. Leff, Ph.D., and Chris Feudtner, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia wrote in a related editorial.

Estimates of bullying and cyberbullying prevalence reported by national surveys tend to vary. According to the latest report by the National Center for Education Statistics, bullying fell to 22 percent in 2013, down from 28 percent in 2011. Moreover, the bullying rate had hovered close to 30 percent in 2005 and rose to 32 percent in 2007.

The lack of a uniform definition of bullying has hindered the ability to understand the true magnitude, scope, and impact of bullying and track trends over time, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Unlike several other studies on bullying, Waasdorp and colleagues used the World Health Organization and CDC’s definition of bullying as follows: “A person is bullied when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more persons. Bullying often occurs in situations where this is a power or status difference. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically and verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.”

Waasdorp and colleagues were surprised to find that cyberbullying (via email and blogs) fell from 6 percent in 2005 to 3.6 percent in 2014. However, the authors noted that because social media platforms have changed so much since 2005, broader definitions of cyberbullying are needed.

The variation in study results also may be attributed to different definitions and measurements, said Bradshaw. She noted that in this study, students were asked if they had been bullied or been the perpetrator within the past 30 days (not if they had ever been bullied) and were asked to report on a large number of indicators (13). The study did not separate out and calculate rates for vulnerable youth groups such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, she said.

Schools Have More Work to Do

Stuart W. Twemlow, M.D., a psychiatrist and former professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry at Baylor University College of Medicine, expressed skepticism that the results of the Pediatrics study suggest any significant shifts in bullying, except for parental awareness. “Adults now know more about the serious effects of bullying, and they’ve become protective of their children,” said Twemlow, who co-wrote with John Sacco, Ph.D., Why School Antibullying Programs Don’t Work and Preventing Bullying and School Violence.

Twemlow said he believes the prevalence of bullying has remained at about 30 percent in most elementary schools, while there may be a decrease in more “refined” forms of bullying in high school that occur during activities such as sports and debate.

Educational programs don’t work unless the whole school becomes involved, he said. Bullying that has just occurred must be handled in an appropriate way, which is to “go to the source”—those involved in the incidents including the bully, the victim, and the audience, said Twemlow. School authorities should refrain from picking out the bully and victimizing him or her publicly, which could worsen the situation, he said. There is emerging research that some widely used approaches such as “zero tolerance” policies are not effective against bullying and should be discontinued, according to a 2016 report on bullying from the National Academies of Science, Policy, and Practice.

The current political climate may also influence bullying behavior among children and teens in years to come, Twemlow said.

Bradshaw agreed. “It’s a moving target. Who knows how today’s events will affect bullying? Maybe we will see a change. But right now, this is a positive story.”

The research was supported in part by grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the National Institute of Justice. ■