Bullying in college by students and teachers

Adolescence, Spring, 2004 by Mark Chapell, Diane Casey, Carmen De la Cruz, Jennifer Ferrell, Jennifer Forman, Randi Lipkin, Megan Newsham, Michael Sterling, Suzanne Whittaker

DISCUSSION

Based on the results of this study, it appears that a substantial amount of bullying by both students and teachers may be occurring in college. Over 60% of the students reported having observed a student being bullied by another student, and over 44% had seen a teacher bully a student. More than 6% of the students reported having been bullied by another student occasionally or very frequently, and almost 5% reported being bullied by a teacher occasionally or very frequently, while over 5% of the students stated that they bullied students occasionally or very frequently.

These data do not follow the pattern of decreasing bullying with age that has been reported in the bullying literature on primary and secondary school students. The findings indicate instead that bullying graduates to college, consistent with studies which have shown that bullying is a fairly common occurrence among adults in the workplace (Glendenning, 2001; O'Moore, Seigne, McGuire, & Smith, 1998; Quine, 2001; Rayner, 1997).

Olweus (1996a) reported that, in a sample of 2,400 Norwegian middle school students, 1.7% had been teacher-bullied in the previous five months. In the present study, which explored bullying by American college teachers, nearly 5% of the students reported having been bullied occasionally or very frequently by their teachers. Based on these two studies, both of which involved large samples, it seems that teachers are abusing their power and bullying students at all levels of education. However, further studies are needed to evaluate the generalizability of these findings.

Consistent with previous studies of bullying among American and European primary and secondary school students (Nansel et al., 2001; Olweus, 1999), male college students engaged in significantly more bullying than females. Male and female college students reported having been bullied equally (by other students as well as by teachers). Studies with American and European primary and secondary school students (Nansel et al., 2001; Olweus, 1999) have also found that males employ more physical forms of bullying, while females use a more verbal style of bullying. Further studies of college bullying are needed to address this issue, as the present investigation focused on the overall occurrence of bullying.

Rigby (1996) and Olweus (1999) theorized that students and teachers who bully act as role models, promoting student bullying. The results of this study partially support this hypothesis, as student bullying was predicted by having seen students bully other students, but not by having witnessed teachers bully students. Finally, Olweus (1999) found that student bullies often had been bullied themselves. Similarly, in the present study, student bullying was predicted by having been bullied by teachers and students. Taken together, these findings suggest that students who experience a climate of violence are more likely to be violent themselves, a case of bullying begetting bullying.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the results of this exploratory study suggest that bullying by students and teachers is a fairly common problem in college. Given the serious and long-term negative mental health consequences associated with being bullied (Duncan, 1999; Katori, 1999; Miller, Verhoek-Miller, Ceminsky, & Nugent, 2000; Olweus, 1999), and the fact that bullied students have been associated with lethal retaliatory violence in American secondary schools (Anderson et al., 2001; Gaughan, Cerio, & Myers, 2001; Meloy, 2001; O'Toole, 2000; Vossekuil, Reddy, Fein, Borum, & Modzelesky, 2000), and that as many as one million American college students may be carrying guns and other weapons on campus on a regular basis (Miller, Hemenway, & Wechsler, 1999; Summers & Hoffman, 1998), it is recommended that the issue of bullying on college campuses receive greater attention.