Understanding bullying: are the definitions useful?

Within schools, bullying continues to be an issue, but when it comes to understanding bullying, how do we measure it? Is it behaviour or impact?

How would you define bullying? You might have some ideas about the behaviours that you believe constitute bullying. They might involve physical interaction (a hit, a kick, or a punch) or name calling. You might also include social isolation or ostracism as a form of bullying. A quick search of the literature will tell you that all these behaviours feature in definitions of bullying used in schools, colleges, universities, and places of work. However, the recording and measurement of bullying is complex.

Is it enough that one person believes that the behaviour of another is both unwarranted and aggressive in intent? What if the behaviour is unintentional or has been misinterpreted in some way? A kick, a slap, a punch, or a name called out in front of others is, one might think, irrefutable evidence. However, these behaviours can also be responses to the incessant torment meted out by others – torment that can go unnoticed.

We need to understand the dynamics of the relationships in play.

When it comes to more covert forms of intimidation, there are those who convey intent to cause harm clearly and unambiguously. In his autobiography entitled Reflections of a Rock Lobster¹, gay activist Aaron Fricke recalls one incident in a science class where a fellow student looked at him in a way that was described as petrifying, in fact he described the look as, “an uninterrupted gaze that could melt steel” (p. 27). When I began my own research on homophobic bullying, I asked whether participants had been frightened by a look or stare at school. I expected few to respond, but it turned out to be one of the most significant factors in school absenteeism.

After thirty years of research on bullying behaviour, I still tussle with the utility of definitions and the ways in which we describe such behaviour. Early definitions spoke of wilful or deliberate acts of aggression, which were systematic or repeated, and where there was an imbalance of power². Yet the questions we asked never really provided the evidence we needed to show intent or indeed a pattern of repetition underpinned by a toxic relationship among two or more people. We need to understand the dynamics of the relationships in play.

Within schools, bullying continues to be an issue. In the United States, I was a member of the expert panel tasked with creating a federal definition of bullying.

In the absence of federal legislation, we offered a definition where repetition was no longer a central characteristic. Unfortunately, state legislatures continue to employ definitions that infer it. Alabama for example describes bullying as “a continuous pattern of intentional behavior,” while Nebraska states that it is “any ongoing pattern of physical, verbal, or electronic abuse.”

Understanding bullying: Scotland’s approach

In Scotland, we have a national approach to anti-bullying³ and a definition that acknowledges the central role relationships and loss of personal agency play in defining bullying: “Bullying is both behaviour and impact; the impact is on a person’s capacity to feel in control of themselves . . . Bullying takes place in the context of relationships; it is behaviour that can make people feel hurt, threatened, frightened, and left out. This behaviour happens face-to-face and online.”

Impact, loss of agency, and relationships sum up what we should be measuring, and how to measure it efficiently and effectively is a challenge.

Professor Ian Rivers FRSE, Associate Principal & Executive Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Strathclyde; RSE Education Committee member

This article originally appeared in ReSourcE summer 2024.

References

¹Reflections of a Rock Lobster, Fricke, A (1981), AlyCat Books

²Homophobic bullying: Research and theoretical perspectives, Rivers, I. (2011), Oxford University Press academic.oup.com/book/10414

³Respect for All: national approach to anti-bullying, Scottish Government (2017) https://www.gov.scot/publications/respect-national-approach-anti-bullying-scotlands-children-young-people/