PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF RESEARCH ON BULLYING IN HAJDÚ -BIHAR COUNTY,HUNGARY
Abstract
School bullying, a widely researched area in several countries of the world, has proved to be a serious problem. Different aspects have been studied, but – though a wide array of intervention and prevention programmes have been developed – fewer results focus on the coping strategies bystanders or victims use. This paper shortly points out some characteristics of prevention and intervention programmes and introduces research results found so far. The main part summarizes findings of the research carried out in Hajdú-Bihar county, Hungary, in the spring of 2008, discussing similarities and differences between its results and those of international research.
Key words: school bullying, coping strategies, peer victimization, children’s disclosure
Introduction
School bullying – a series of aggressive acts against a weaker individual by groups or an individual with the aim to systematically hurt – calls for research not only in areas widely researched already (like prevalence, types, participant roles and their relationships with other factors), but also in examining participants’ reactions, i. e. how they can cope with these events. This can serve as a basis for further steps, programmes for intervention and prevention trying to fight the problem.
Although some research evidence exists of results on how children react, this area seems to be somewhat neglected, even though knowledge based on successful coping techniques could be used to stop the bully and end the torture. This paper aims to briefly summarize some of the research data of international publications
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125 and offers findings of a research carried out in Hajdú-Bihar County, Hungary, in spring 2008.
Coping with bullying: international perspectives
Steps taken by victimized children or bystanders having experienced an act of bullying do not show a wide variety: these children, even if they have average social skills, as participants of a stressful situation having experienced physical or psychological injuries use a limited range of coping: they cry, run away, fight back, ask for adult or peer help, or show indifference. The possibility of successful coping tends to be less probable also because the child victimized is often chosen to be victimized because of the very fact that he/she is lacking in the necessary social skills and/ or interpersonal relations: passive victims are introvert, isolated, anxious, and oversensitive, have little self-confidence and few friends (Unnever 2005, Egan and Perry 1998 in Mishna and Alaggia 2005). Often they blame themselves for being bullied and by showing pain they encourage the bully to continue the aggression.
Research results of coping tend to be similar to data about other areas of bullying by showing results that often contradict each other. E.g.
results on the correlation between school size and prevalence of bullying show both a lower prevalence in smaller schools and smaller classes (Wolke et al. 2001) and no correlation between prevalence and school or class sizes (Whitney and Smith 1993).
Moreover, Stephenson and Smith found a higher frequency of bullying in larger schools (Stephenson and Smith 1989). A similar contradiction is seen in data of coping: disclosure – telling others about the bullying event – appears to be steady and unchanging (Eslea and Smith 1998), but also seems to become less frequent as victims get older: they tend to cope with being bullied by themselves, not telling anyone about it, i.e. disclosure gets less common (Glover et al. 2000).
Research carried out in countries where bullying has been an important area of research seems to show different steps taken by victims and bystanders: they may fight back, ask for help, show indifference, pay no attention, cry, answer back, run away or react with a combination of the above.
Prevalence of different steps taken shows the following in different studies: Half of the victims stand up against the bully but do not
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fight. 37% ask for help, almost a quarter of them keeps away from the place where the bullying happened. 16% of them do not do anything (Glover et al. 2000). In Scotland, the study on children’s health behaviour showed that children most often try to escape, shout for help, or wait till the bully calms down and stops the attack. One quarter of the children do not do anything (Currie et al. 1993). In 1997 Smith and Shu found that 66% of the answers indicated paying no attention, 26% asking the bully to stop, 23 % asking an adult for help, and the same number indicated fighting back. In smaller proportions children cried, asked a friend to help, and ran away (Smith and Shu 2000). Research in Maine studied third graders, 91%
of whom do something (choose an active answer): 44% tells and adult, 32% tells the bully to stop, 32% leaves the place, 24% tells a friend, and 3,4% stay at home. 2,1% of the answers indicated further violence: they said they bullied others (a larger number of boys than girls) (Silvernail et al. 2000). The difference between the differing results is likely be caused by contextual differences: the studies examined different age groups, different cultures, at different times.
Research attempted to find connections between steps and other variables: correlations of coping and age, or coping and gender were examined.
Older participants tend to choose strategies where adult help is not asked for: they try to cope with the situation on their own (11-year old children chose fighting twice as often as seven-year-olds (Glover et al. 2000). (This seems to contradict data that claims that physical types of bullying are less frequent as children get older (Brame et al.
2001). However, it should be noted that in the first case the answers refer to coping –as an answer to the bullying act-, which might differ from the type of the act itself, i. e. physical aggression does not necessarily elicit physical reactions). In Smith and Shu’s research as participants got older, they tended to pay no attention instead of crying or running away used earlier. As Smith, Madsen and Moody claim, social skills improve and get more sophisticated with age, and as it can be expected, victims choose more complex strategies to fight bullying. Their data also showed that the steps tend get more successful with age (Smith et al 1999).
Correlation between gender and coping tend to show results similar to the correlations of bullying types and gender. Due to the different socialization paths between males and females in the acts of bullying boys more often choose physical ways to bully, whereas girls bully more relationally (the fact that the latter type is less obvious makes
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127 people believe that bullying is typically carried out by boys). In coping, boys also tend to fight back more often (Smith and Shu 2000) and hit back or beat (Currie et al. 1993, Glover et al. 2000).
Girls tend to ask for help more often (Hunter et al 2004), tell their parents (Currie et al 1993), tell their teachers (Glover et al. 2000), cry or ask a friend to help (Smith and Shu 2000).
Gender differences have appeared in another step, in disclosure (see below in more detail) in different cultures as well. The study comparing results of British and German schoolchildren found that in both cultures girls more often chose the answer “always” on disclosing bullying events to the teacher and more rarely chose the answer “never” than boys (Wolke et al. 2001). (The same study found a significant difference between the answers of the two countries: more than half of the British children (51,3%) indicated they “always” told if they were victimized, whereas only 9,8% of the German children did so (Wolke et al. 2001). This also underlines the importance of interpreting results only in context.)
Disclosure seems to be a very important way of coping with bullying. It might efficiently help the victim – or a bystander, though less often - for different reasons: the partner’s help can result in ending the bullying. Moreover, the fact that by telling someone the victim can get rid of the tension and hiding is also considerably beneficial. Research shows that those who do not tell are those who are bullied most, since this way they offer the possibility for the bullying to continue. (Charach et al 1995 in Mishna and Alaggia 2005).
Despite of this, a lot of victims do not tell anybody (Pepler et al 1994). Charach and his team found that one third of the victims decide to tell someone about the aggression at most. 63% of those who do, tell their parents, 47% their teachers (Charach et al 1995 in Mishna and Alaggia 2005). Those who do not tell can do this for several reasons: they might prefer coping on their own, or are afraid that asking for someone to help will just worsen the situation.
Keeping these things secret belongs to bullying, as this can be one way to threaten the victim. Bullying is about the victim believing that the bully is more powerful. The bully has clear ideas of social relations: victims are chosen because they tend to be less powerful.
Quite often victims blame themselves for being picked on, and they believe that they can’t be helped. Victims are also often afraid that the bully will take revenge if having been told on or punished.
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Another reason for not telling anyone about having been victimized or having seen a bullying event lies in children’s expectations about adult reactions. 40% of the answers told that the adult does not intervene, intervenes only once or does hardly anything (Pepler et al.
1998 in Mishna and Alaggia 2005). With age this seems to be even worse: they believe less in the success of adult intervention (Charach et al 1995 in Mishna and Alaggia 2005).
Coping with bullying: schools in North-East Hungary
The research carried out in Hajdú-Bihar County in Hungary in spring 2008 involved 1006 primary school pupils. The list of participating schools chosen from among all primary schools of the county was generated by a computer program to random sampling and could be considered representative. In each school the head teacher chose a fifth and a seventh class where pupils filled in the 100 item questionnaire prepared by the research team. 1
The questions were organized around several topics (school climate, prevalence of school bullying, types, participants, coping, and attitudes towards bullying). In most questions students chose between the options given, but pupils also had a chance to add their comments.
Answers about coping were divided into two groups based on the different participants: answers of bystanders and those of victims are discussed separately. The reason for this is that different participants are affected in different ways: victims are under direct attack.
Bystanders, although involved less directly, can play a key role in how bullying continues.
Results
Bystander answers2
Evaluating bystander answers separately from those of the other participants’ results from the belief that this group can disclose their attitudes most frankly: they cannot be blamed for the bullying event,
1 The team is led by Dr. Buda Mariann, senior lecturer at Debrecen University.
2 Bystanding experiences were asked for in different sections of the questionnaire (Questions 26-47)
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129 as opposed to bullies, who might not want to take the responsibility of bullying others or victims, who might be ashamed of being bullied.
Our data show that bystanders report more occurrences of bullying as compared to victims:
Bystander answers to „Nothing like this happened”: 11,2%
Victim answers to „Nothing like this happened”: 18,1%
Answers show that bystanders reported experiencing bullying 41%
more often than victims.
Steps taken by bystanders show the following pattern (Figure 1):
almost one third of the bystanders tried to stop the bulling by themselves (29,7%). The second choice is to ask friends to help to stop (17,4), then consoling the victim afterwards (16,4%), and pretending not to be there (14,8%). Teacher help is asked for in 12,7%. 11,6% joined the bully.
Figure 1: Bystanders’ answers to “What did you do when you saw an act of bullying’?
0 5 10 15 20 25
30 I joined the bullying
I pretended not to be there
I asked a teacher to stop the bullying I consoled the victim afterwards I tried to stop the bullying
If the two age-groups are compared, a significant difference is shown: fifth graders tell their teachers and pretend not to be there more often than seventh graders, who, on the other hand, ask their friends to stop the bullying more often. (p<0,05). Girls’ and boys’
answers show that girls report experiencing a larger occurrence of bullying, and their answers show that girls more often tell their teacher, console the victim later but also more often pretend not to be there.
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Victims’ answers
Among the participants of bullying victims are those who are most likely to be deeply hurt in bullying: its effects may affect all their lives. The outcome of the bullying event greatly depends on their social skills, their courage, or moral strength.
Figure 2: Victims’ reactions (%)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Frequency in percentages
I pretended not to care.
I asked for help.
I pretended to think it was funny.
I fought back. / I retaliated.
Victims’ reactions to being bullied show the following pattern (Figure 2): most often they pretend finding it funny (56,5%), ask for help (14,55%), retaliate (10,4%), pretend they are not interested (5,7%). (Answers to disclosure are given separately.) Significant differences appear between fifth and seventh graders: younger pupils pretend indifference, retaliate and ask for help more often, whereas older pupils choose to think and show the case to be funny more often. Between the two genders there’s significant difference in asking for help and showing indifference: boys do it more often.
Questions that look into disclosure offered four possibilities: not telling anyone, and telling to a friend, parents or a teacher. Hungarian students most often tell a teacher about being bullied (58,7%). This is followed by not telling it to anyone (12,9%), then telling their parents (9%), and lastly to a friend (8,54%). Comparing age groups (Figure 3) fifth graders significantly more often tell their friends than seventh graders. Differences between girls and boys are negligible.
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131 Figure 3: Who do victims tell about being bullied?
Answers by age group
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Fifth graders N=515
Seventh graders N=486
I told a friend.
I told my parents.
I told a teacher.
I did not tell anyone.
Discussion
The findings of this research are both similar to and different from results of other studies, which reminds us of the importance of interpretation in context.
Bystander answers do not contradict social expectations: active steps to fight bullying were indicated most often (trying to stop it, telling friends). Here, for the first time in a series of answers we need to face the possibility that students answer what they know they are expected to answer. Answers in the mid-section (average frequency) are the ones which show avoiding involvement or passivity. On one point answers fall short of expectations: bystanders show reluctance in telling the teacher and asking for their help. It is difficult to say why, but a lesser involvement – as compared to victims – might explain this: they do not consider the case so serious, and do not consider need for help essential. It also needs to be considered that the term „bystander” includes several different roles: they can be followers of the bully, assistants, reinforcers or defenders. These subgroups show roles with different, often opposing attitudes: thus the heterogeneity of the group might be an answer.
The result that fifth grader and seventh grader bystander answers present with the younger ones asking for teacher help more often, older ones involving their friends, justifies earlier findings that show that with age children turn towards their peers and move away from adults.
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The victims’ answers of pretending being bullied to be funny got an unexpectedly overwhelming dominance. This step seems acceptable if the type of bullying is not physical but relational or verbal. This explanation seems to fall in with results that show this answer was more often given by the older pupils. Earlier findings that “physical bullying declines with age” (Brame et al 2001 in Stassen Berger 2007:95), and relational and verbal ways take over seem to explain this result.
Looking at disclosure our answers contradict earlier ones showing a decline in willingness to tell as children grow older. Our seventh graders indicated a growth in the frequency of disclosure, moreover, they told adults more often than their peers. Although there might be different reasons, we suppose the reason to be the expected answer.
The answers also show that children told their teachers most often about being bullied. Research data from other countries show that the person to be told is least often the teacher. This, we think may be explained by the difference between the mostly Anglo-Saxon context of education and that of Hungarian. In the former countries education is less teacher-centred, individual initiatives and active involvement, learner responsibility and independence get a larger emphasis in these cultures, consequently students are educated to take an active role in solving their problems. In Hungary education is traditionally more teacher-centred and until lately students were “trained” to ask for teacher help both with academic or behaviour problems.
However, another possible reason for the dominance of disclosing the bullying to the teacher might again be caused by students giving the answer expected of them – which also points out the importance of working for the teacher’s appreciation primarily.
Summary
The results – preliminary, as indicated in the subtitle - and discussion above are just the first steps in our research on coping with bullying.
However, this short piece already indicates further directions of research and interpretations (e.g. correlations between coping techniques and frequency of types of bullying).
The above results so far have shown a picture that is – as expected – not favourable at all: bullying is present in Hungarian schools, to a degree that is similar to research results in other countries. Moreover, certain points show a picture even grimmer than expected:
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133 Hungarian schoolchildren in the study seem to be more helpless and less assertive in standing up against bullying. Even with age students do not show a growing resposibility over fighting for themselves or being more conscious of choosing coping techniques that either avoid or successfully stop aggressive acts. It is quite a discouraging result especially if we consider that being successful at fighting bullying means appropriate individual decisions born in the self or assisted/ encouraged by a healthy community. Most research results on programmes fighting bullying show that any attempt aiming at intervention and prevention should focus on a wider context than schools themselves: if we want children to stand up against aggressive acts on their own more efficiently, it is not enough to aim at particular cases. Personal training on problem-solving, conflict resolution should be the basis of the programmes – both on individual and community levels. Also, as conclusions from other studies suggest even small, hardly visible results can only be achieved by serious long-term efforts.
References
Brame, B. – Nagin, D. S. – Tremblay, R. E. (2001): Developmental trajectories of physical aggression from school to early adolescence, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 42: 503-512.p.
Currie, C.- Todd J. – Wijckmans K. (1993): Health Behaviours of Scottish School Children: report 2, family, peer, school and socio-economic influences. University of Edinburgh, Research Unit in Health and Behavioural Change
Eslea, M. – Smith, P. K. (1998): The long-term effectiveness of
Eslea, M. – Smith, P. K. (1998): The long-term effectiveness of