Perceived severity of school bullying in elementary schools based on participants’ roles

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived severity of school bullying among participants with different roles (victims, bullies, bullies/victims and non-involved individuals) and to determine whether interactions between type of bullying and participant roles exist. Two Olweus-like global items and a revised School Bullying Severity Scale for elementary students were used in this study. A total of 1816 valid surveys completed by students in grades 5 and 6 (mean age = 11.5, SD = .84) were collected. Data were analysed using a mixed-model two-way ANOVA. The results revealed a significant main effect of type of bullying. Physical and verbal bullying were perceived as more severe than relational and cyberbullying. A significant two-way interaction between bullying category and participant role was also identified. Bullies did not perceive the four types of victimisation behaviours differently, whereas victims and bullies/victims both rated physical victimisation as most severe and cyber-victimisation as least severe. However, effect sizes were small. Implications for bullying prevention and intervention are discussed.