The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Social Development (Smith/The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Social Development) || Bullying

✍ Scribed by Smith, Peter K.; Hart, Craig H.

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 559 KB
• Edition: 2
• Category: Article
• ISBN: 1405196793
• DOI: 10.1002/9781444390933.ch27

✦ Synopsis

Peer -to -peer bullying seems to be a universal phenomenon taking place in most school classes across different schools and cultures (Espelage & Swearer, 2004 ;Schwartz, Chang, & Farver, 2001 ;Smith et al., 1999 ). Being bullied was defi ned by Olweus ( 1991 , p. 43; earlier version from 1978) as " being exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other students. " Although some researchers have phrased it a bit differently, there are at least three defi ning characteristics of bullying that seem to be universally accepted: (a) intent to harm, (b) repetition over time, and (c) power differential (i.e., the victim fi nds it diffi cult to defend him or herself against the perpetrator). Bullying is thus different from confl icts, quarrels, or fi ghts between two individuals who are equal in terms of psychological or physical strength or social status.

Although all aggressive encounters taking place at school cannot be regarded as bullying, bullying clearly is a subtype of aggressive behavior. Aggressive behavior is often defi ned as behavior directed toward another individual that is carried out with the proximate (immediate) intent to cause harm. In addition, the perpetrator must believe that the behavior will harm the target and that the target is motivated to avoid the behavior (see Bushman & Anderson, 2001 , p. 274). Although aggression is often measured in terms of its behavioral manifestation without taking into account the intent of the perpetrator, there is a widely recognized taxonomy based on the function of aggressive behavior. Proactive aggression is defi ned as goal -directed harmful behavior, and it is distinct from