Bullying Need Not Be Physical to Have Dire Consequences

Youth throughout the world have been found to bully their peers, with a negative impact on the mental and physical health of the victims (Psychiatric News, December 3, 2004).

Most of the attention, however, has been focused on verbal or physical bullying, not on relational bullying. Relational bullying is socially manipulative behavior intended to hurt others, such as spreading rumors about them, dropping them as a friend, or excluding them from the group.

This kind of bullying can also cause considerable psycholog ical pain. One study found that girls are more hurt by it than boys are. Other studies have suggested that it can lead to social anxiety, loneliness, depression, and substance use. And a new study has discovered that relational bullying diminishes youngsters' social enjoyment at school, makes them feel less safe there, and encourages some even to bring a weapon to school.

This study was headed by Sara Gold-stein, Ph.D., an assistant professor of family and child studies at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Results were published online on May 16 in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

The study included 1,335 students in grades 7 through 12 in public schools in Detroit; 706 were female, and 629 were male. To participate in the study, they were excused from one class period to go to the school's computer lab and fill out a survey on the Internet. The students logged on using an assigned PIN number without having to provide any personal identifying information.

Besides request ing demographic information, the survey asked the students questions about their experiences with verbal bullying, physical bullying, and relational bullying in their school; their perceptions of safety in their school; their views on the social climate of their school; and whether they carried a weapon to school.

Goldstein and her colleagues then evaluated the results to see how many and what types of students experienced the various types of bullying. They also looked at whether there was a link between relational bullying and three factors—the social climate of the school, school safety, and bringing a weapon to school.

Out of the 706 girls in the study sample, 61 percent had experienced relational bullying, and 62 percent verbal or physical bullying. Out of the 629 boys, 52 percent had experienced relational bullying, and 69 percent verbal or physical bullying.

Significantly more of the middle-school girls incurred verbal, physical, and relational bullying than did girls in high school. In contrast, boys in middle school were significantly more likely to experience verbal and physical aggression than high-school boys were, but not significantly more relational aggression.

Even after exposure to verbal and physical bullying were taken into consideration, having been relationally bullied was significantly linked with feeling less positive about social experiences at school. This was true for students of both genders.

In addition, relational bullying was significantly linked with the students' lower perception of school safety on the part of both boys and girls.

And having been relationally bullied was significantly linked in boys, but not in girls, with carrying a weapon to school. “Thus, for males at least, and [if] the present results [are] replicated in additional research, relational aggression should be added to the list of risk factors for weapon carrying in schools,” Goldstein and her colleagues asserted.

“This is an important study, demonstrating that adolescents' perception of a safe school is in part dependent on the degree to which they see and experience relational aggression—that is, aggression through interpersonal contact,” Stuart Twemlow, M.D., told Psychiatric News. He is a professor of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and an authority on school bullying. “Since unsafe children don't learn well, it behooves educators to create a safe school environment.”

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

An abstract of “Relational Aggression at School: Associations With School Safety and Social Climate” can be accessed at<www.springerlink.com/content/104945> by typing the title of the study in the “Find” box.▪