Bullying behaviour and psychosocial health among school students in New South Wales, Australia: cross sectional survey

British Medical Journal, August 7, 1999 by Roberto Forero, Lyndall McLellan, Chris Rissel, Adrian Bauman

Abstract

Objectives To examine the prevalence of bullying behaviours in schoolchildren and the association of bullying with psychological and psychosomatic health.

Design Cross sectional survey.

Setting Government and non-government schools in New South Wales, Australia.

Participants 3918 schoolchildren attending year 6 (mean age 11.88 years), year 8 (13.96), and year 10 (15.97) classes from ! 15 schools.

Main outcome measures Self reported bullying behaviours and psychological and psychosomatic symptoms.

Results Almost a quarter of students (23.7%) bullied other students, 12.7% were bullied, 21.5% were both bullied and bullied others on one or more occasions in the last term of school, and 42.4% were neither bullied nor bullied others. More boys than girls reported bullying others and being victims of bullying. Bullying behaviour was associated with increased psychosomatic symptoms. Bullies tended to be unhappy with school; students who were bullied tended to like school and to feel alone. Students who both bullied and were bullied had the greatest number of psychological and psychosomatic symptoms.

Conclusions Being bullied seems to be widespread in schools in New South Wales and is associated with increased psychosomatic symptoms and poor mental health. Health practitioners evaluating students with common psychological and psychosomatic symptoms should consider bullying and the student's school environment as potential causes.

Introduction

Recent reports have highlighted the frequency of bullying in schools and the adverse consequences on bullying behaviour in adolescence.[1-7] Despite the efforts of schools to prevent or stop bullying, it still occurs worldwide.[2 8-10] Victims of frequent bullying have been reported to experience a range of psychological, psychosomatic, and behavioural symptoms including anxiety and insecurity, low self esteem and low self worth,[2 3 12] considerable mental health problems, sleeping difficulties, bed wetting, feelings of sadness, and frequent headaches and abdominal pain.[1 5] They are also more likely to be unhappy and depressed[5] and absent from school.[13]

Although definitions of bullying behaviour vary, bullying has been defined as the "intentional, unprovoked abuse of power by one or more children to inflict pain or cause distress to another child on repeated occasions."[14] The most common form of bullying self reported by Australian students is verbal harassment--for example, teasing and name calling.[13] This is consistent with students in Norway[15] and England.[1] Most students do nothing to help victims because they feel it is not their place to get involved.[16 17]

Reported estimates of bullying vary owing to differences in the type of measurements taken and the sex, age, and ethnic origin of students studied. For example, in Newham, east London, 22% of young people had been bullied at some time.[1] In Yorkshire, 21% of children had been bullied and about 17% had taken part in bullying others "sometimes or more often."[18] Another study in the United Kingdom found these rates to be 4.2% and 3.4% respectively.[11] The weekly incidence of bullying in Australian schools has been estimated at about 1 in 6 children during any one year.[16] Bullying has been found to decrease with age, with boys more likely to have been bullied and to participate in bullying others compared with girls.[5 11 13 18] Bullies are more likely to dislike school and to engage in behaviours that compromise their health such as smoking and drinking alcohol to excess.[5] According to the problem behaviour theory, bullying others may be one of a cluster of problem behaviours.[19]

Our study sought to identify the prevalence of bullying behaviours among schoolchildren in New South Wales, Australia, and the association of bullying with psychological and psychosomatic health. Our study differs from earlier ones by differentiating students involved in bullying behaviour from those who bully and are themselves bullied, those who only bully, those who are only bullied, and those who are neither bullies nor bullied.

Participants and methods

Participants

Analyses are based on a statewide sample of year 6 (primary) and year 8 and year 10 (secondary) students attending one of 115 Catholic, government, and independent schools. We stratified the schools into primary and secondary schools, and we selected those to participate through cluster random sampling defined by school class.

Participation was voluntary and anonymous. We obtained ethical approval for our study from the relevant education sectors and the New South Wales Health Department.

Methods

We randomly selected one class from each selected school year according to the World Health Organisation's survey protocol for health behaviour among schoolchildren.[5] The self administered surveys were completed in classrooms under exam-like conditions in October and November 1996, at the end of the last term (term 3) of the Australian school calendar.