Behind the Bullying Epidemic in Schools and on the Web.

(By Judy Beaupre)

Kids will be kids.

We’ve been saying it for years, sometimes as an explanation for actions that defy adult understanding, occasionally to dismiss or downplay the need for personal accountability, and—perhaps way too often—to convince ourselves that the sometimes-alarming behavior we witness in the young people around us is “normal.”

Take bullying. Once seen as a “rite of passage,” bullying was a label for such innocuous behavior as taping a “call me stupid” sign to the new kid’s back, hiding earthworms in a classmate’s lunchbox, or—as depicted repeatedly in the musical comedy series, Glee—tossing a slushie in someone’s face. Messy, uncomfortable, embarrassing—but not all that damaging in the long run. That has changed, or at least our recognition of the sometimes-dire consequences that can accompany bullying has. Today’s version of peer-to-peer torment has captured media attention as a far more disturbing trend—one that transcends hurt feelings and strawberry-stained clothing, instead being blamed for suicides, catastrophic acts of mass revenge, and long-term mental health consequences for victims, perpetrators, witnesses, and family members.

“Between 15 and 30 percent of students in today’s schools are involved with regularity in bullying—and often with negative consequences,” says Dr. Dan Olweus, a professor of psychology at the University of Bergen in Norway, who has devoted more than 40 years to bullying research and is recognized as an international authority on the subject.

Bullying By the Numbers

“Victims suffer from anxiety, depression, poor self-esteem—they view the rejection by their peer group as too hard to handle.” Others put the prevalence of bullying far higher than Olweus’ estimate. Research published in 2009 in the Journal of Adolescent Health reported that, while only 20 percent of students reported involvement in physical bullying—either as a victim or a bully—more than half were involved in social bullying (defined as social exclusion or spreading rumors) and even more—54 percent—were on the giving or receiving end of verbal bullying. The most recent addition to the bully’s arsenal—cyberbullying—is the fastest growing, accounting for an ever-increasing portion of teen harassment cases. This 21st-century twist on the age-old practice of picking on classmates encompasses the rampant use of the Internet, email, and texting to demean or harass others. Cyberbullying is, in some ways, the most dangerous; it extends the bully’s timeframe for making a peer’s life miserable from school hours to 24/7, and vastly expands the reach of ugly rumors, innuendo, and compromising or humiliating photos.

While bullying has been around for decades—if not centuries—social scientists have only recently gathered enough empirical data to draw conclusions about the phenomenon’s long-term psychological effects. According to researchers, students who have been repeatedly intimidated or persecuted are far more likely to be emotionally distressed and twice as likely as their non-involved peers to experience psychosomatic symptoms such as headaches and abdominal pain. Most alarming of all is the connection that has been suggested between bullying and suicidal ideation.

During the past year alone, news media have been peppered with the stories of children and teens who became victims of what is sometimes referred to as bullycide.

In Massachusetts, a 15-year-old high school girl whose family had recently moved to the United States from Ireland was taunted with cultural slurs—and physically harassed as she walked home from school—until she hanged herself in the stairwell of her home. In Minnesota, two eighth-grade girls fulfilled a suicide pact after repeatedly indicating that they were ostracized and bullied by classmates. And in New Jersey, an 18-year-old Rutgers University student jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge after classmates secretly shot video of him in an intimate encounter with another male student and streamed it online.

While the reasons students are targeted for harassment are many, “being different” leads the list. Few groups are singled out more frequently than students who are—or who are perceived to be—gay. One study produced in 2010 by Iowa State University researchers showed that more than half of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth had been cyberbullied in the 30 days preceding the survey. For many, this led to depression and—for 26 percent—thoughts of suicide.

“There’s a saying that we’ve now changed to read, ‘Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can kill,’” Warren Blumenfeld, an assistant professor who co-authored the study, told the ScienceDaily website. “Pre-adolescence through adolescence is a time when peer influences are paramount in a young person’s life. If one is ostracized and attacked, that can have devastating consequences—not only physically, but on their emotional health for the rest of their life.”

Recent research published this year in the Journal of School Health supports Blumenfeld’s contention. According to the study, LGBT young adults who had been victimized during adolescence were more than five times as likely to report having attempted suicide and more than twice as likely to report clinical levels of depression.

“We now have evidence of the lasting personal and social cost of failing to make our schools safe for all students,” said University of Arizona professor Stephen Russell, the study’s lead author. “In our study, we see the effects of school victimization up to a decade later or more.”

Tackling the Problem

Teen angst is nothing new, and has long provided a steady stream of clients for mental health professionals who work with this population—child and adolescent psychologists, clinical counselors, school psychologists, and marital and family therapists.

The growing recognition of bullying’s long-term impact, however, has caused professionals to take a closer look at causes and consequences, and to develop more proactive approaches to curbing the practice’s most egregious forms and teaching victims resilience strategies.

Bystanders and Bullies

Dr. Olweus, the international bullying authority quoted earlier in this story, used his four decades of research to develop the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, which has been implemented in elementary, middle, and junior high schools across the country and claims to have reduced bullying by up to 70 percent in some schools. Its focus is on improving school climate, training teachers and staff to recognize and deal with bullying incidents, and involving parents in conversations about how best to support their children.

Dr. Dan Koonce, associate professor of school psychology at The Chicago School’s Chicago Campus, is a strong believer in using Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS), a systems approach to creating a positive social climate in schools, as a weapon against bullying. Rather than focusing solely on discipline, PBIS incorporates proactive strategies for defining, teaching, and supporting appropriate student behaviors.

It is a two-part approach, he says, involving both a teacher-training component and direct instruction of all students in how to identify bullying and how to respond—as a victim or as a bystander.

“Some teachers are not fully aware of what’s happening—especially when relational aggression is taking place,” Dr. Koonce says. “Texting can be just as dangerous as more outward forms of bullying, and teachers have to know how to identify and address it.”

Unfortunately, addressing the issue on a schoolwide or even communitywide level is often not enough. All 50 states have enacted some form of anti-bullying legislation—many specifically targeting cyberstalking, cyberharassment, and cyberbullying. In March 2011, President and Mrs. Obama hosted a White House Conference on Bullying Prevention, which included leaders from the American Psychological Association, educators, politicians, and mental health professionals.

Participants discussed ways to empower students to come to the aid of classmates who are being victimized, and how to involve family members in teaching their children more respectful ways of interacting with their peers.

Too often, bullying incidents become a matter for the legal system, typically when they lead to violence. Both adults and juveniles have faced charges when their harassment activities resulted in attempted suicide or other injuries, and victims have been known to lash out, taking revenge on those who have tormented them. Sometimes, too, verbal taunting or cyberbullying is just the first step in what eventually becomes more overt acts of violence.

Turning to Violence

In 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who were widely reported to have been bullied in school, went on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., killing 13 including themselves, and injuring 21 others. Seung-Hui Cho was 23 when he opened fire at Virginia Tech, killing 32 before taking his own life, but authorities said that much of his anger could be traced to his high school days, when fellow students had made fun of his shyness and accent.

The 21st Century Bully: Online, Not In Your Face

Dr. James Shaw, assistant professor of forensic psychology at The Chicago School’s Los Angeles Campus, has spent years studying the causes of teen violence. His book, Jack and Jill and Why They Kill: Saving Our Children, Saving Ourselves, shares the stories of 13 adolescents serving time in state youth prisons for murder. His insights were the subject of a keynote address he gave at the first commemoration of the Columbine tragedy. While the juvenile inmates he interviewed did not necessarily point to bullying as a cause for their rage, all articulated feelings of alienation, isolation, and being unloved and unlovable. They expressed disappointment in a person they trusted and with whom they had a connection.

“There is no uniform behavior or set of symptoms for children who turn to violence, although the news media would like to have everyone fit into a formula,” Dr. Shaw said. “The closest I can come is to say all were unhealthy children psychologically and emotionally, and all felt some level of betrayal.” An important thing to recognize, he emphasized, is that “these are kids, not fully formed, and not completely matured psychologically.” He added that the majority did not understand the gravity of what they had done until their court appearance, when they realized the impact their actions had had on family members and the community.

In an effort to counteract teen violence, Dr. Shaw has founded the B.R.A.V.E. (Be Resilient Avoid Violence Everywhere) program, through which he helps children recognize and resist the pressure to engage in any form of violence or bullying as a means of problem-solving. The project has taken off, gaining recognition throughout the criminal justice system, and has been cited by the Philadelphia Regional Office of the FBI as “an example of best community practices.”

Dr. Shaw contends that while parents have responsibility for bringing up children who can readily distinguish right from wrong, schools need to do a better job of addressing aggressive activities. “We need a violence-prevention curriculum that is taught side by side with social studies and English,” he says. “If we can mandate driver’s education, why can’t we require this too? Social driving—social navigation—is as important as anything else we teach in school.”