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Countering Bullying at An Australian Secondary School W - 1999 - Journal of Adol
Countering Bullying at An Australian Secondary School W - 1999 - Journal of Adol
Introduction
In Australia, as in many other parts of the world, the problem of bullying at schools has
recently been recognized as a serious concern (Rigby, 1997a). Over the last 6 years surveys
conducted in 86 schools using the Peer Relations Questionnaire (Rigby and Slee, 1993a)
have yielded data from over 38,000 Australian school children, from which it has been found
that approximately one child in six is bullied by a peer or group of peers at school on a weekly
basis (Rigby, 1998a). It is known that many of these victimized children are severely affected.
They are more likely than others to absent themselves from school and to experience below
average physical and psychological health, which may persist for years after intensive periods
of bullying (Rigby, 1998b).
Interventions to counter bullying in schools are now regarded as a matter of high priority
in an increasing number of Australian schools. Yet, for the most part, reports of school-based
interventions indicate only limited success. For example, whilst in the U.K. the Shef®eld
intervention study found reductions overall of the order of 15±20%, in some schools no
signi®cant changes were reported (Smith and Sharp, 1994). The task of devising
more consistently effective interventions remains. It may be that different methods will
work in different schools. Hence, there is a continuing need to examine in some detail what
schools are doing to address this distressing and often seemingly intractable problem of peer
bullying.
Anti-bullying programmes in schools generally have these features in common: they have
a school policy speci®cally targeting bullying and also procedures for dealing with incidents of
bullying when they arise. These procedures are typically teacher-directed and employ a
combination of counselling of students who are involved and sanctions to punish bullies and
deter further bullying behaviour. Some schools, however, have additional features which
enable students themselves to contribute towards a solution to the bullying problem.
Reprint requests and correspondence should be addressed to Dr K. Rigby, University of South Australia,
Underdale Campus, Holbrooks Road, Underdale, South Australia, 5032, Australia.
0140-1971/99/040481+12 $3000/0 # 1999 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents
482 L. Petersen and K. Rigby
The school
The school was a large coeducational school in an urban area of New South Wales. It is
attended by some 1200 students, 80% described themselves as from ``Australian families'', the
minority being of immigrant background from Europe and Asia. The school caters for
students from Years 7 to 12, with most students transferring from local primary schools at 12
years of age.
The most general measure of bullying in the PRQ utilizes an estimate of the frequency
with which a student experiences bullying behaviour from others at school. The percentages
of students reporting being bullied weekly are given for boys and girls according to year in
Table 1.
Comparisons with norms available from Australian students in these years attending
coeducational schools show that the level of reported victimization was unusually high,
especially among boys. The corresponding means for Australian students, in these years,
based on results given in the PRQ Manual (Rigby, 1998a), are, for boys 205% (n=8546),
and for girls 146% (n=7557).
An examination of the kinds of bullying reported as ``often'' experienced by students at the
school showed that being called hurtful names was the most common (boys, 144%, girls
112%), followed by being unpleasantly teased (boys 142%, girls 110%). More boys reported
being hit or kicked ``often'' than girls (137% of boys and 67% of girls), and also being often
threatened (129% of boys and 53% of girls). Being often ``left out of things'' occurred to a
similar extent: 97% of boys and 90% of girls. As in the normative sample, bullying occurred
mostly within gender groups, although girls were more likely to report being bullied by boys
than vice versa. On none of the comparisons between the reported incidence of bullying of
students from families described as ``Australian'' and others were there signi®cant differences
after applying chi-square analyses (in each case, p4005, df=2). This suggests that bullying
was not particularly motivated by racial or ethnic prejudice.
Students who reported being bullied in one way, for example, by threats or being hit, also
tended to report being bullied in other ways, such as being unpleasantly teased or deliberately
excluded. In fact, an index or scale of victimization based on responses on a three-point scale
(never, sometimes, often) to questions about the ®ve kinds of bullying described above
proved to be reliable, with an alpha coef®cient of 085. Scores on this so-called Victim Scale
were subsequently used to make comparisons with applications of the PRQ at the school
2 years later (see Table 2).
Results from the PRQ also provided evidence that many students were being affected
negatively by being bullied at school. Of those reporting being bullied, 31% of boys and 46%
of girls reported that afterwards they ``felt worse about themselves''; some 40% of boys and
60% of girls reported feeling angry or miserable about it. Of the total sample, 14% of boys and
12% of girls reported staying away from school because of bullying at school; and 34% of boys
and 33% of girls indicated that ``they could use help from somebody'' to stop being bullied.
On the positive side, there were grounds for supposing that many students wanted help
improve the situation. Some 53% of boys and 56% of girls indicated that they thought
``students and teachers should work together to stop bullying''. A further 28% of students
were ``unsure''.
484 L. Petersen and K. Rigby
Table 2 Mean scores on the Victim Scale for the 1995 and 1997 samples, by year and sex
Year 7 Year 8* Year 9 Year 10 Year 11
1995 sample
boys 819 ± 830 677 702
(120) ± (109) (113) (60)
girls 808 ± 722 619 628
(87) ± (93) (104) (72)
1997 sample
boys 791 764 919 678 696
(82) (95) (103) (74) (81)
girls 724 700 760 666 614
(92) (97) (86) (82) (57)
Results for three-way ANOVA
F df p
Main factors
Time (1995 vs. 1997) 015 1 4005
Year (7, 9, 10, 11) 3027 3 50001
Sex 2413 1 50001
Interactions
Time6year 337 3 5005
Time6sex 036 1 4005
Year6sex 276 1 5005
Time6year6sex 076 3 n.s.
*Data for year 8 in 1995 were not available and were accordingly not taken into account in the ANOVA.
In the table of mean scores n is given for subgroups in parentheses.
Results from the PRQ were presented to the teachers at a staff meeting. The general
response was one of shock: the extent of the problem appeared much greater than had been
anticipated. A number of actions followed. First, a school policy on bullying was developed,
involving not only staff members but also student representatives and parents. This began
with a statement of rights: ``Every person at [this] school has the right to experience positive
and respectful relationships between all members of the school community. They also have
the right to learn and teach in a happy and safe environment. Bullying is therefore not
acceptable at [this] school.'' The policy also went on to describe, in general terms, how the
school proposed to prevent bullying. Support was to be enlisted from teachers, parents and
students.
School staff were urged to acknowledge the seriousness of any bullying incident or report
made to them by a student involving bullying. The incident or report was to be referred to a
nominated teacher, a staff member with the responsibility of dealing with the case. The
procedure adopted was along the lines suggested by Pikas (1989) in his Method of Shared
Concern (Rigby, 1997a); that is, suspected bullies were interviewed individually, the problem
and the school's concern about the victimization was shared with the student, and
responsible action to improve the situation invited. Promised actions were then carefully
monitored. Interviews were also to be conducted with victims and advice given to help them.
Countering bullying at an Australian secondary school 485
This approach has been shown to be effective in preventing further bullying in a majority of
cases (Smith and Sharp, 1994). A number of teachers undertook appropriate training to
employ this method at the school. At the same time, student awareness of the importance of
what was being done was increased by the introduction of content about bullying as part of
the school curriculum. In both the Personal/Health and English/Drama areas speci®c lessons
focused on the discussion of bullying issues.
All students were advised to bring cases of bullying into the open. If they were being bullied
they should seek help, in the ®rst instance by discussing what was happening with friends and
parents. If this was not effective, help would be provided by the school. A number of roles
were created so that students could be involved directly in countering bullying in the school.
These ``other'' activities did not have countering bullying as their sole or central concern, but
were nevertheless expected to make signi®cant contributions. These included the school
welcomers whose role it was to help new students not only with enrolment procedures but
also to offer membership of a social group, at least until they became more established at the
school and made their own friends. It is known that newcomers are often most vulnerable to
bullying due to their social isolation. In addition, a primary school group visited the main
feeder primary school and over a 5-week period spoke to Year 6 students in small groups
about ways of dealing with bullying. Of further relevance was the Peer Support Program
which met regularly to help address a range of personal developmental issues experienced by
young adolescents. Speci®c discussion materials on bullying at school were included in this
programme as the ®rst intervention in the school's anti-bullying programme.
When a range of activities has been undertaken to achieve a desired goal, it is dif®cult to
assess precisely which speci®c activity, if any, made a signi®cant impact. In seeking to
evaluate what has happened, one can ask two relevant questions: (i) whether in fact there
were changes in the incidence of bullying and attitudes towards bullying at the school over
the 2 years within which anti-bullying activities were carried out, and (ii) what activities, if
any, were seen as making a substantial contribution by those most involved in peer
interactions, that is by students.
In September 1997 the PRQ was administered for a second time to students of the school, on
this occasion from Years 7 to 11. Again the ®ve-item Victim Scale proved to be reliable
(alpha-086). It was therefore used as a relatively sensitive indicator of the extent to which
students were being bullied by peers at school. The mean scores on this measure are given for
the 1995 and 1997 samples in Table 2.
From the results in Table 2 it is evident that there was not an overall decline in reported
victimization at the second assessment. It was unclear, however, whether the criteria for
determining ``victimization'' had changed as a consequence of the continuing attention
bullying had received over the 2 years of intervention. One might expect students to have
become more sensitive to, and more inclusive of, what actually constitutes bullying. As in
earlier studies (Rigby, 1997b), girls reported being bullied less frequently; being bullied was
also less commonly reported by senior students (Years 10 and 11) than by juniors (Year 7 in
1995 and Years 7 and 8 in 1997). The ®ndings that bullying was highest in Year 9 for boys in
1995 and for boys and girls in Year 9 in 1997 were inconsistent with previous normative data,
which show a continuous decline in bullying with age for both sexes (Rigby, 1998a). The
signi®cant interaction effects (time6year and time6sex) suggest the possibility of some
variation across time in the relative incidence of bullying in different year groups and also
between boys and girls.
Countering bullying at an Australian secondary school 487
Given that interactions between children occur mainly within year groups, a further
analysis was conducted to compare Victim Scale scores between 1995 and 1997 for particular
year groups. Successive two-way ANOVAs with sex and time (95 vs. 97) as factors were
conducted using data for Years 7, 9, 10 and 11. Signi®cant results were found in results for
Years 7 and 9. For Year 7 the mean Victim Score was signi®cantly lower in 1997 (F=388,
p=005); but for Year 9 the mean score was signi®cantly higher in 1997 (F=441, p5005).
In addition, in Year 9 males scored signi®cantly higher than females: (F=1924, p50001).
There were no signi®cant interaction effects. These results suggest that bullying was lower in
1997 for Year 7 students than it had been 2 years earlier, but for Year 9 it was higher.
Further comparisons were made between pre- and post-intervention responses to other PRQ
items related to bullying for three groups or levels of students: (i) Year 7, the group for which
reported peer victimization decreased; (ii) Year 9, for which a signi®cant increase was
recorded; and (iii) senior students (Years 10 and 11) for which no signi®cant changes in
victimization were found. The p-values assigned to the obtained group differences were
derived from multiple chi-square analysis. Values adjusted using a Bonferonni correction
would support as signi®cant (p5005, two-tailed test) those given below as ``p50001''. The
non-adjusted p-values at the 001 and 005 levels are given to identify trends.
Among Year 7 students the following differences between the 1995 and 1997 samples were
found: fewer students in 1997 observed bullying occurring ``often'' on the way to and from
school (p50001); more students expressed the view that the school was a safe place for
young people who ®nd it hard to defend themselves (p5005); more students thought that
``teachers were interested in trying to stop bullying'' (p5001); fewer students reported being
threatened with harm by other students (p50001); fewer students reported that they had
participated in group bullying (p5005); and fewer students indicated that they could ``use
help from somebody'' (p5005) to stop someone bullying them. All these results were
consistent with positive effects of anti-bullying activities.
By contrast, compared with the 1995 sample, more Year 9 students in the 1997 sample had
observed bullying in class and on the way to school (p5001) and had been personally
threatened with harm and bullied by ``a group of students'' (p5005). ``Telling'' others about
being bullied had become less common (p5001); of those students who had told someone,
a higher proportion in 1997 reported that ``things had got worse'' (p5001). Students in
1997 reported that they were less inclined to tell in circumstances in which they were bullied
daily (p5001). Consistent with such macho attitudes, more Year 9 students in 1997
reported that they had engaged in bullying others in one-to-one situations and as members of
a group of students (p5005 and p50001, respectively).
As there were no signi®cant changes between 1995 and 1997 indicated on the Victim
Scale for Years 10 and 11, the results for these classes were combined for the more detailed
analyses. On none of the measures of kinds of bullying experienced were there signi®cant
differences between 1995 and 1997 samples (p4005). However, the 1997 students
indicated that they had been less engaged as part of a group in bullying others (p5005) than
the earlier sample. Moreover, they perceived less frequent bullying, speci®cally on the way to
school and on the way home (p5005). They also judged that the safety of ``vulnerable
children'' was greater in 1997 (p5005).
488 L. Petersen and K. Rigby
Generally, attitudes towards the school anti-bullying initiative were more positive
for senior students in 1997 sample. These students were signi®cantly more supportive
than their predecessors of the following statements: ``teachers and students should be
concerned about stopping bullying in this school'' (p5005); ``teachers should try to stop it''
(p5001); ``students themselves should help to stop it'' (p5001); and ``students and
teachers should work together to stop bullying'' (p50001). Thus although the experience of
being bullied had not become signi®cantly less common for senior students (but note that it
had been relatively low in 1995), there was consistent evidence that the senior students in
1997 were perceiving less bullying occurring among students of the school and were more
supportive of steps that could be taken by teachers, students, and teachers and students
together.
known or understood. For example, some 416% of students responded ``don't know'' to the
Year 7 Peer Support Anti-bullying Program.
As one might expect, differences were found in the evaluations made by subgroups. With
respect to eight of the 10 programmes, girls responded signi®cantly more positively than boys:
by chi-square, p5005. The exceptions were in relation to the anti-bullying posters and
discussions between teachers and students on the topic of bullying for which sex differences
were not signi®cant. Signi®cant differences (p50001) were found between year-level groups
with respect to each of the 10 programmes with Year 9 students consistently least positive in
their appraisals.
Seventy-two students provided comments on bullying at the school. Of these, 25% expressed
clear approval of what had been done. Some comments were general: ``I think it is greatÐall
the Anti-Bullying things going on round the school'' (Year 8 student); ``Thank you for having
such an interest in stopping bullying'' (Year 10 student). A few gave examples of how they
had been personally helped: ``kids who have left a place have left their friends as well. When
they come to new school they need friends. I know this because I've moved many times. The
School Welcomers Program here is really important for people like me.'' (Year 7 student).
Regarding another program: ``I have bullied earlier in the year and now I don't because of the
Anti-Bullying Committee I joined'' (Year 7 student).
Nevertheless, many students expressed scepticism about whether bullying could be
stopped through any school programme. ``Bullying isn't going to stop. If you don't like
someone you hit them. The people being bullied should learn to ®ght.'' (Year 9 student).
``Anti-bullying'' wrote a Year 8 student, ``is a good idea but face itÐit doesn't work.'' Three
students in Year 10: ``I think bullying is something which just happens to everyone at every
school and no matter how hard they try to stop it, it will always happen''; ``Some kids are just
plain bullies and nothing said or done won't (sic) change that''; ``I don't think bullying will
ever stop. It will always be part of school life. I think talking about it only makes it worse. It
will just have to be accepted in schools.'' The sense of hopelessness is further re¯ected by a
comment from a Year 7 student: ``Well, I think no-one really wants to talk about it because
that only makes it worse.''
There were differences between students on how bullying might be stopped. Some saw the
use of punishment as the most effective method of curbing bullying: ``If you made
punishment for bullies a lot stricter, may be we'd see a difference'' (Year 10 student). Again:
``The bully should be suspended automatically''; ``I think punishing or threatening might
work'' (Year 7 students). On the other hand, some students favoured a direct educational
approach: ``I think the topics in class help a lot because in class you know everyone and they
listen and respect your opinions.'' (Year 7). Opinion was divided on the contribution that
teachers could make. Some were clearly negative: ``Teachers can't do anything to help. They
make things worse because the bully gets angrier because you dobbed''; ``I think teachers
should stay out of it sometimes, and let the kids work it out for themselves. They butt in too
much sometimes'' (Year 7 students); ``Teachers are the main bullies yet you focus on us''
(Year 8); ``Teachers should try to reason with students instead of yelling giving them
detentions. Usually bullies have a deep down problem that can make them become bullies
and until you ®nd that, they won't change.'' (Year 11 student). Others were positive about
490 L. Petersen and K. Rigby
the work of the school staff, for example: ``I think that bullying will go away with help from
teachers'' (Year 11).
Discussion
Over a 2-year period the school engaged in developing ways of dealing with the problem of
bullying among Australian secondary students which emphasized the part that students
themselves could play. The gains in terms of reduced bullying were modest and limited to
students in their ®rst year of high school for whom it would appear the school had become a
safer place. Nevertheless, this was an important gain because bullying tends to be particularly
intense and often devastating for students at this stage in their schooling (Rigby, 1996). That
a signi®cant reduction was indicated for Year 7 students in 1997 on the psychometrically
reliable Victim Scale is particularly persuasive in view of the likelihood that the anti-bullying
campaign at the school would have increased the sensitivity and general awareness of
students about what constitutes bullying. The actual change was therefore probably
underestimated. The change at this level is also consistent with the fact that there was
speci®c targeting of Year 7 through the Peer Support Anti-bullying Program and the Personal
Development/Health curriculum focus on bullying. Year 7 students were also the most
numerous group in the Anti-bullying Committee.
Responses of students to questionnaire items, beyond Year 7, provide a mixed picture. Year
9 appeared to be particularly resistant to the campaign with students in that year in 1997
being victimized by peers more frequently and engaging in bullying others more often than
their predecessors. Many of these students were highly sceptical of the possibility that
bullying could be reduced. At the same time, there were signs that more senior students in
Years 10 and 11 had become more positive and optimistic. Even though being bullied by
others had not become less frequent according to the peer Victimization Scale there was a
perception among the 1997 group suggesting that bullying in general had become less
common and vulnerable children were safer. Particularly heartening were the results showing
that more students had become convinced that students and teachers should work together
to stop bullying (p50001).
Whilst no clear attribution can be made for the reduced level of reported peer
victimization by Year 7 students in 1997 and more positive attitudes towards the anti-
bullying campaign among the most senior students, the student evaluation of programmes
suggests that student-led programmes were seen as the more effective: especially the School
Welcomers Program and the students' Anti-bullying Committee. Comments made by
Countering bullying at an Australian secondary school 491
students also suggest that teacher interventions were sometimes viewed with suspicion and
as likely to prove counter-productive. Hence student initiatives to counter bullying at this
school appear to be highly desirable.
This study identi®ed Year 9 boys as the group in the school most resistant to reducing
bullying. This is consistent with earlier research which suggests that with successive years of
schooling macho attitudes become more and more entrenched, until towards the end of their
school lives when attitudes towards peer victimization become more constructive and less
cynical (Rigby, 1997c). In a relatively extreme bullying environment, aspects of the school
ethos may serve to encourage many mid-adolescent boys to engage in bullying as an
admirably tough way of behaving or as a means of survival in a school jungle. Arguably, anti-
bullying programmes could be seen as a direct attack upon prevailing ``masculine'' values of
this group. This may explain why, after 2 years of exposure to anti-bullying information,
reported peer victimization among Year 9 students appears to have increased together with
greater reluctance to seek help from others.
The implications from this study are ®rst that positive changes to reduce bullying can be
effective, at least with ®rst year students at a high school where a well-planned whole school
policy is implemented and students themselves play a key role in putting the programme into
effect. It is also suggested that senior students (beyond Year 9), among whom peer
victimization is relatively low, can become more strongly motivated to support co-operative
student/staff initiatives to reduce bullying. Finally, the dif®culties of reducing bullying in
schools should not be underestimated. Many students feel that the problem cannot be solved
and even that teachers are part of the problem. Effective early interventions of the kind
demonstrated in this study with Year 7 students may, in time, have the effect of preventing
the development of subsequent bullying behaviour and cynical attitudes towards what can be
done.
Acknowledgement
Support for this project was provided by the NSW Department of Education and Training,
especially through the assistance of Ms Kerry Williams. Thanks are also due to the Executive
and class teachers of Jamison High School in New South Wales for their generous
contribution.
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