An evidence-based bullying reduction program
 
Understanding Bullying

I am Being Bullied

I am Worried about
Being Bullied

I Think I am Bullying

I Know Bullying is
Going on

How can I Help
Stop Bullying?

Understanding Bullying

What is bullying?

Bullying is repeated behaviour used by a more powerful person or group over a less powerful person, who has difficulty stopping the situation.  The person or people bullying deliberately try to make the person being bullied upset, angry or afraid.

 

Types of bullying

Bullying means deliberately and repeatedly trying to make a person upset, angry, humiliated or afraid.  Bullying is a behaviour used by a person or group who gain power over a less powerful person, who has difficulty stopping the situation.

Physical bullying

  • Deliberately bumping, pulling, shoving or tripping someone again and again
  • Throwing things at someone to hurt, annoy or upset them
  • Hitting, punching or slapping, pinching, biting or scratching someone repeatedly
  • Repeatedly touching someone who doesn’t want to be touched.
  

Verbal bullying

  • Calling people names
  • Spreading rumours
  • Teasing someone in a mean and hurtful way
  • Being sarcastic in a hurtful way.
 

Threatening

  • Making someone feel afraid that they are going to be hurt or afraid
  • Making things up to get someone into trouble
  • Forcing someone to do homework
  • Forcing someone to commit offences, e.g. stealing.
 

Property abuse

  • Damaging someone’s belongings
  • Repeatedly stealing someone’s money
  • Taking things away from someone
  • Repeatedly taking or hiding someone’s belongs.
  

Emotional bullying

  • Ignoring someone or keeping them out of group conversations (known as exclusion)
  • Making fun of someone’s appearance
  • Leaving someone out by encouraging others not to have anything to do with them
  • Spreading lies or stories about someone
  • Making fun of someone’s appearance
  • Trying to get other students to dislike someone
  • Trying to get other students to harm someone
  • Spreading rumours about someone.
  

Sexual bullying

  • Touching when someone doesn’t want to be touched
  • Being pressured to do things that you don't want with your body or someone else’s
  • Hurtful comments about the way someone may look or behave
  • Mean and hurtful comments about someone’s body.
   

Racist bullying:

  • Making racial comments about someone and their family
  • Rude gestures or jokes about someone’s religion.
   

Cyber bullying:

  • Sending harassing, abusive or offensive emails, phone messages or SMS phone texts
  • Making silent or abusive phone calls
  • Spreading rumours via email or phone messages.
    

Question

Is teasing always bullying?

Teasing that is done in fun when both the person teasing and the person being teased are involved in the joke and are happy, is not bullying.However, teasing that is done in a mean and hurtful way that involves one person upsetting another person is wrong. If a person keeps doing this again and again to that person it is bullying.Sometimes a friend might laugh along with you when you tease them, but may actually be hurt or upset by your comments. You must always think about how your comments might effect the other person and how you would feel if it was said to you.

Why is bullying harmful?

Some people think bullying is just part of growing up and a way for students to learn to stick up for themselves. But bullying can make students feel lonely, unhappy and frightened. It is not just the students being bullied who are affected. Students in our surveys reported that they don’t like seeing bullying in their school it makes them feel worried and uncomfortable. Students who bully others are also more likely to have problems and be unhappy as well. Bullying really isn’t good for anyone.

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Totally wrong ideas about bullying

Students are bullied for lots of reasons. Sometimes they’re bullied because they are different, or because they’re clever or popular and at other times simply because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bullying often comes from a belief that it is okay to act that way.

Totally Wrong

These students need help to learn the right way to get on with others so they can develop healthy and happy relationships.

Some students believe that it is okay to bully students who are different from them, such as students from different races and cultures, students with disabilities or students who look different. 

Totally Wrong

These students need to learn that all students are different from one another and all should be treated equally, with respect and understanding.

When students have been hurt themselves or upset they may start to feel they have no power in their lives. Harassing others may make them feel more powerful and in control of others.

Totally Wrong

We find that some students bully because they have been bullied themselves or been made to feel bad by other students. Bullying others will not make you feel better. In fact students who bully generally are not happy, don’t feel good about themselves and are not liked by others.

Some students believe that because they belong to the majority group (i.e. there are more of them) they are somehow better than students in minority groups. This means that they might discriminate against and pick on students from minority groups.

Totally Wrong

Being part of a group can be a really good feeling, especially if the group is a healthy and supportive friendship group. Being part of an unhealthy group can be bad for you. Groups who think they need to use the group to have power over others and don’t respect the differences of others are not healthy.

Students are sometimes bullied by a group or 'gang' of their peers.

Whatever the reason, it is not OK to bully.

Friendships are about give and take as well as supporting each other.

  

Question

Why do you think schools, the police, the community and the government are now putting so much emphasis on reducing and preventing bullying?

It is only fairly recently researchers have discovered just how much effect bullying can have on people. We now know that students who are bullied often are more likely to show higher levels of depression and anxiety, as well as feelings of loneliness and rejection by their peers. We also know the damage that is done at this stage can stay with these students as they grow into adult life.

The impact is not just on the people who are bullied. Research has discovered that students who bully others are often far more likely to go on to have a criminal record before they are 21 years old. They are also more likely to become adults who behave in antisocial ways. The community in general recognises that students who engage in bullying behaviour regularly at school can be recognised as those people who will possibly be a problem later on in society.

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Why do some students bully others?

To understand how to stop bullying we first need to understand why people bully others.  It is often thought that children who misbehave or who have problems at school are the children who bully. Some people who bully are popular students with good leadership skills. They can have groups of friends and the support of this group. Some people who bully others can be popular with the teachers and be very well behaved in class.

Sometimes people don’t even realise what they are doing is bullying behaviour and often don’t realise the level of hurt and anxiety they inflict upon others.

Why do some people bully?

  • To gain a sense of power among their classmates.
  • To get attention or become popular.
  • To get things they want.
  • To copy another person they admire.
  • To make themselves feel better when they are feeling bad about themselves or jealous of someone else.
  • Because they feel that another person is becoming more popular than they are in their group.
  

Students who bully are thought to be lacking attention, power or love and by bullying they try to get these missing parts in their lives. They are usually students who need to feel powerful and seem to enjoy inflicting harm on others. They have very little understanding of the feelings of the person they bully.

Who is involved in bullying?

Bullying usually involves

Bystanders – the people who see, support or know the bullying is going on.

Bystanders can be:

People who bully thrive on the peer group and bystanders who either support or do nothing to stop the bullying. When the audience of bystanders and peers gives the person bullying all the power and attention they crave this to make them feel powerful.

Students in Western Australian schools report that they don’t like seeing bullying. Students have mixed feelings when they observe bullying including confusion, lack of knowledge about what to do and fear of becoming the next target.

For more information on what bystanders can do to stop bullying

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Child Health Promotion Research Unit Edith Cowan University