Bullying in schools: educational prevention

Abstract. The problem of bullying prevention in school is considered in this article: the essence, types and conditions of bullying among teenagers are revealed; the features of educational bullying prevention  and practical recommendations for school teachers on educational bullying prevention are considered.

Keywords: Bullying, school bullying, abuse, forms of bullying, «victim», «abuser», educational prevention, anti-bullying program.

The problem of school bullying is one of growing dimensions and is of tremendous concern to teachers, parents, and many of the children themselves.

Bullying is a constant, intending terror, aggressive harassment of one of the members of the group by another, while the disparity forces of the aggressor and the victim can be traced.

According to the research of foreign scientist D. Olweus, about 17.5 % of boys and 16% of girls face school bullying 2-3 times a month, and 12% boys and 7% girls are the aggressors of bullying [1]. Bullying by physical means was more common among boys.  In contrast, girls often used more subtle and indirect ways of harassment such as slandering, spreading rumours, and manipulation of friendship relationships. Nonetheless, harassment with non-physical means – by words, in particular - was the most common form of bullying among both boys and girls.   An additional result was that boys carried out a large part of the bullying to which girls were exposed.  More than 50 percent of bullied girls reported being bullied mainly by boys.  An additional 15-25 percent said they were bullied by both boys and girls.  The great majority of boys, on the other hand - more than 80% - were bullied chiefly by boys. According to the reports from the Organization «VOZ», 44% children of 11-year-olds and 27% teenagers of 15-year-olds face aggression at school in Russia.

Bullying is popular in various countries and its research is conducted by scientists, teachers and psychologists from the United States, Denmark, Japan, Russia, Finland, Canada, etc.

Initially, the problem of school aggression was considered by Scandinavian scientists (a. Pokas, P. P. Rolland, D. Olweus, P. P. Heinemann) in the late of 70s XX century. The first name for bullying was «mobbing», which mean collective terror against one person, which disrupted the general activity of the class [3] (currently, it meaning one of the forms of violence committed by a group of young people).

The term «bullying», introduced by D. Olweus: «A student is bullied or victimized when he or she is the target of repeated and periodic negative actions by one or more students» [1].

In the 1990s, foreign scientists: D. Lane, E. Roland, E. Munte, and others systematized general knowledge about bullying [4]. Russian scientists (O. Malantseva, V. Petrosyants, M. Nechaeva, I. Berdyshev, etc.) began to consider the problem of «school bullying» later, in the 2000s.

A broader concept was introduced by E. Roland: «Bullying is a prolonged physical or mental violence by one or a group of persons against a person who is unable to protect himself in the current situation» [4].

Bullying is a form of interaction with different types of behavior. It has the structure of a conflict with different specific features [5]: repetition/ duration, intention, abuse of advantage, infliction of harm, physical and psychological both.

The main members of bullying: «Victim», «Abuser», «Supporters and followers», «Indifferent observers», «Possible protectors».

Basis factors for bullying: problems in the family, the conflict environment, the difference between child and the rest, the absence and reluctance of school teachers to control the relationship of students, the broadcast of violence in the media.

Preventive work is carried out by a class teacher among students, since bullying has group factors (A.V. Petrovsky, A. S. Makarenko, N. A. Novikova, etc.). [2] This form of work helps to create such characteristics of interaction between children as activity, mutual support, etc.

In summary, there are several important factors or dimensions that must be considered and addressed in anti-bullying work but I am very confident that systematic work along these lines will produce good and lasting outcome results.