Anti-bullying campaigns tout big numbers. And here’s the biggest of the bunch: One in five children now report being bullied at school. But when these campaigns describe what constitutes “bullying,” a fuzzier picture emerges.
With help from our science editor, Josh Krisch, Fatherly took a hard look at the research to uncover the truth behind adolescent bullying.
The National Center for Educational Statistics, for instance, reports that 85 percent of bullying victims report being called names, insulted, gossiped about, or excluded. So, are modern kids subject to real bullying in record numbers or is bad schoolyard behavior just being more aggressively tracked than ever before? Is every mean kid now a bully, and is everyone with hurt feelings now a victim?
From a statistical standpoint, the answer to that question might be “yes,” and that might present a real problem. Though no one argues that bullying has net positive effects, some scholars are concerned that pathologizing victimhood sets children on the wrong foot when it comes to learning to handle interpersonal conflict, which remains — even in touchy-feely times — an inevitability.
More than this, research suggests that identifying a child as a bully for a singular isolated incident might actually have the inverted effect of turning that child into a bully who continues that behavior as they try to live up to the label they’ve been given.
All in all, the conversation is much more complex than anti-bullying campaigns would have you believe. And there is a very real possibility that in trying to protect our children, we are doing more harm than good.
With help from our science editor, Josh Krisch, Fatherly took a hard look at the research to uncover the truth behind adolescent bullying.
The National Center for Educational Statistics, for instance, reports that 85 percent of bullying victims report being called names, insulted, gossiped about, or excluded. So, are modern kids subject to real bullying in record numbers or is bad schoolyard behavior just being more aggressively tracked than ever before? Is every mean kid now a bully, and is everyone with hurt feelings now a victim?
From a statistical standpoint, the answer to that question might be “yes,” and that might present a real problem. Though no one argues that bullying has net positive effects, some scholars are concerned that pathologizing victimhood sets children on the wrong foot when it comes to learning to handle interpersonal conflict, which remains — even in touchy-feely times — an inevitability.
More than this, research suggests that identifying a child as a bully for a singular isolated incident might actually have the inverted effect of turning that child into a bully who continues that behavior as they try to live up to the label they’ve been given.
All in all, the conversation is much more complex than anti-bullying campaigns would have you believe. And there is a very real possibility that in trying to protect our children, we are doing more harm than good.
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