Child Rearing Influences 
Introduction @According to some estimates, 160,000 children skip school each day because of intimidation by their peers. The National Center for Educational Statistics reports that 77 percent of middle and high school students in small mid-western towns have been bullied. And a newly released study from the National Institutes of Health published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals that almost a third of 6th to 10th graders -- 5.7 million children nationwide -- have experienced some kind of bullying (Nansel et al., 2001). Bullying has been a persistent problem that, with the heightened attention to school violence, has only recently been recognized as a pervasive issue needing immediate focus.
Bullying can take the form of name calling, put-downs, saying or writing inappropriate things about a person, deliberately excluding individuals from activities, not talking to a person, threatening a person with bodily harm, taking or damaging a person's things, hitting or kicking a person, making a person do things he/she does not want to do, taunting, teasing and coercion. Bullying can be physical, verbal, psychological, or a combination of these three.
Passive bullies are also referred to as anxious bullies. They rarely provoke others or take the initiative in a bullying incident. Passive bullies are usually associated with aggressive bullies and, hence, often take the less-aggressive role. As groups, the aggressive bully will instigate the bullying situation while the passive bully supports his/her behavior and/or begins to actively participate once the bullying begins. The passive bully aligns with the more powerful and, relatively speaking, more popular, action-oriented aggressive bully, earning the passive bully the descriptors of "camp follower" and "hanger-on."
It has been suggested that bullying could be greatly reduced if teachers provided better supervision of students during free play, recess, the noon hour, or on the school bus. Teachers also need to be present in the hallway during class changes and during restroom breaks. Many schools have failed to address the problem and many ignore bullying when it is observed. Not only are students bullies but teachers have also been identified as bullies. Many teachers see bullying as a normal, natural part of growing up and are therefore indifferent when they see it occur.
Schools are currently responsible for protecting students from harassment based on sex. The U.S. Office for Civil Rights publishes the legal principles "requiring educational institutions that receive federal funds to take steps reasonably calculated to stop harassment when it occurs and prevent recurrence" (Office for Civil Rights, 2001).
Child Rearing Influences
The child may not have received warmth and caring from the mother: there may have been a failure to bond with the parents or the child may not have felt loved. Many parents fail to set limits for their children's behavior and the parents may have used assertive disciplinary methods where control and coercion were a part of the discipline. There are also indications that inconsistent discipline on the part of the parents can produce a bully. If a parent exhibits aggressive behavior and if the child is encouraged to assert him/herself in socially unacceptable ways, the child may become a bully.
Characteristics of the Child
There are no distinct characteristics of a child who bullies. Boys tend to be more aggressive and more overactive and hyperactive than girls.
The following characteristics are associated with predicting children with a high level of difficult behaviors:
* difficulties adapting
to new situations;
* irregular eating and sleeping habits;
*
negative moods, strong moods; and
* unpredictable
behavior.
Factors of the Environment
American homes and schools do not provide negative consequences for bullies and society sees bullying as transient or inconsequential. In fact, on television and in movies bullies often go unchecked and are sometimes rewarded. For boys, bullying is seen as "standing up for himself" or as "all boy." In the school environment, bullying is often unnoticed or ignored and supervision in the schools are many times inadequate. Crowded conditions, such as on school playgrounds, encourage bullying. Bystanders who admire the exploits of bullies serve as models for others.
The school needs to establish a whole-school approach to bullying by establishing an awareness of the bullying problem. The school needs to evaluate how friendly it is toward bullying. Awareness of bullying both within and outside of the school can help reduce the act. Also, increased school safety features, such as video monitoring, can provide more protection to students.
Students should be encouraged to report incidents of bullying by promising the students anonymity. The school should develop a student watch program by training student volunteers to patrol and report instances of bullying. In the classroom teachers may use stories and drama to increase awareness of bullying and bully courts can be set up for addressing bullying issues. The school should provide training for students in problem-solving approaches, which include conflict resolution training, conflict management and quality circles. All of these can be positive ways of addressing inappropriate behavior. These activities make the school safer and let students know that bullying is a violation of children's rights.
ERIC Parent Brochure: What Should Parents and Teachers Know About Bullying? This brochure characterizes bullies and their victims, offers advice on how schools and parents can prevent bullying and intervene when it becomes a problem, and suggests sources for further information. http://www.eric.ed.gov/resources/parent/bullying.html
ERIC Digest: Bullying in Schools (1997) http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed407154.html
ERIC Digest: Easing the Teasing: How Parents Can Help Their Children (1999) http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed431555.html
Askew, S. (1989). Aggressive behavior in boys: To what extent is it institutionalized? In D. P. Tattum & D. A. Lane (Eds.), Bullying in schools (pp. 59-71). Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.
Batsche, G. M., & Knoff, H. M. (1994). Bullies and their victims: Understanding a pervasive problem in the schools. School Psychology Review 23(2), 165-74.
Mayo Clinic. (2001). "Headline Watch: One-third of U.S. kids affected by bullying." Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER). http://www.mayoclinic.com/findinformation/conditioncenters/invo ke.cfm?objectid=09C423AB-1A81-448D-B9730315E83291E4
Nansel, T.R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R.S., Ruan, W.J., Simons-Morton, S., & Scheidt, S. (2001). Bully behaviors among US youth: Prevalence and association with psychosocial adjustment. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285, 2094-2100.
Nolin, M. J., Davies, E., & Chandler, K. (1995). Student victimization at school: Statistics in brief. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. ED 388 439.
Office for Civil Rights. (2001). "Resources for Addressing Sexual Harassment." U.S. Department of Education. http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCR/sexharassresources.html
Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at school: What we know and what we can do. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. ED 384 437.
Smith, P. K., & Sharp, S. (Eds.). (1994). School bullying: insights and perspectives. London: Routledge. ED 387 223.
Tattum, D and Tattum, E. (1992) Social Education and Personal Development. London,: David Fulton.
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Doris Rhea Coy is a counselor educator at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.
ERIC Digests are in the public domain and may be freely reproduced and disseminated.
This publication was funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Contract No. ED-99-CO-0014. Opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the positions of the U.S. Department of Education, OERI, or ERIC/CASS.
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