Bullying in school: nature, effects and remedies

Abstract

This review synthesizes recent research on bullying in school, a widespread social problem among school-age children in many countries. It begins with a theoretical examination of the definition of bullying, showing the multifaceted coercive behaviours of bullying. The review proceeds to demonstrate the short- and long-term consequences of bullying for both victims and bullies. The authors outline individual characteristics of victims, bullies and bystanders as well as school characteristics of bullying. The authors examine, from the sociological perspective, the social tolerance of bullying, and provide theoretical bases for explaining bullying behaviours. The review ends with a discussion on successful prevention and intervention programmes of bullying as well as on the counselling aspects of bullying. In addition, the authors examine quantitative and qualitative methods commonly used in the research of bullying, evaluating each method and introducing new, promising quantitative and qualitative methods, and discuss future directions in the study of bullying in school.