Each year in Australia, more than 900,000 Australian students report being victims of bullying – a phenomenon that schools around the nation, and the world, continue to struggle with.
Last year, a study by the World Health Organisation found that one in three children aged between 11-15 are a victim of peer bullying and that 120 million girls globally were sexually assaulted before the age of 20.
Studies have shown that the most common type of bullying is psychological bullying, followed by physical bullying and sexual bullying. Cyberbullying, which has been on the rise since the COVID-19 lockdowns, impacts approximately one in ten children globally.
A growing body of research also suggests that bullying occurs in early childhood – potentially planting the seeds for long-term issues later in life. Because of this, schools are paying particular attention to early intervention strategies.
Friday 19th March marked the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA), Australia’s key bullying prevention initiative, connecting schools and communities to find workable solutions to bullying and violence.
In recent years, there has been a push to improve anti-bullying programs in Australian schools as reports show students’ mental health on the decline. However, some experts say most schools’ anti-bullying programs are not as effective as they could be.
Over the last 25 years Professor Ken Rigby has been a national consultant for schools and a leading international authority in bullying and victimisation in schools with more than 100 peer refereed papers and other publications.
His paper, ‘How Teachers Deal with Cases of Bullying at School: What Victims Say’ recently looked at the results of a survey of student victims of peer bullying in 25 coeducational Australian schools.
The students answered a questionnaire to provide accounts of how their school responded to their requests for help. The students also indicated how severely they were emotionally impacted by the bullying and whether the bullying was perpetrated by an individual or by a group.
The reported outcomes from the intervention indicated that in 67% of cases the bullying stopped or was reduced. However, in other cases, the school interventions were less successful.
“In cases in which victims experience bullying that is most severe and upsetting, interventions to stop the bullying are often unsuccessful,” Professor Rigby told The Educator.
“This is because such victims find it hard to develop effective coping skills and are therefore difficult to help”.
Professor Rigby said professional counselling and peer support is commonly needed.
“If the bullying is being perpetrated by a group of students, interventions also tend to have a low success rate,” he said.
“For such cases it is necessary to identify who are the major offenders and meet with them first individually, share your concern for the victim and then seek their help to improve the situation”.
Professor Rigby said these students can subsequently be brought together as a group to discuss how they propose to resolve the problem.
“Finally, they may be invited to meet with the victim and an acceptable solution negotiated – with the help of the counsellor or teacher,” he said.
“This method, known as the Method of Shared Concern, or Pikas Method, has been repeatedly shown to produce highly positive results in Australian schools.
Recognising early warning signs
Professor Barbara Spears, an Adjunct Professor with UniSA Education Futures and the Chair of Australian Universities’ Anti-bullying Research Alliance (AURA), says it’s important for educators and parents to recognise that sexual harassment is an early indicator of aggression and violence.
“Harassment is often taken to be separate from bullying; because it is less physically violent, it is often considered more of a nuisance or irritation than harmful behaviour,” Professor Spears recently told MCERA.
“But really, harassment, particularly sexual harassment, is part of the developmental trajectory of aggression and violence. The pattern of victimization shifts as children mature: from physical behaviours, to verbal, to social, and finally sexual”.
She said studies continue to show that boys sexually harass girls daily, while girls more often spread sexualised rumours online and use verbal sexual harassment to manipulate their peer group.
“Social media has opened up new avenues, and whilst young people seemingly think of it “just a part of school life”, these behaviours reflect a gendered form of violence, and must be taken more seriously than just ‘teasing’ someone”.
Dr Lesley-Anne Ey, senior lecturer at UniSA’s Education Futures, says bullying education arrives too late in Australian schools.
“In Australia we have a national action plan to combat bullying with bullying policies and education present in all schools. Unfortunately, bullying policies are not widely known within the parent and teacher community and bullying education is largely absent until year four,” she said.
“To combat bullying, it is important to introduce bullying prevention and education in the early years of schooling. Such education needs to go beyond social competence and needs to be explicitly taught.”