bullying and harassment essay

154 Bullying Topics & Bullying Essay Examples

Looking for an exciting research topic about bullying? This problem is very controversial, sensitive, and definitely worth studying

🏆 Top 10 Bullying Topics for Research Papers

📃 bullying essay: writing tips, 🏆 best bullying topics to write about, ⚡ most shocking bullying topics to write about, ✅ simple & easy shocking bullying essay titles, ✍️ bullying essay topics for college, ❓ research questions about bullying.

Examples of bullying can be found everywhere: in schools, workplaces, and even on the Internet (in the form of cyberbullying).

In this article, we’ve collected top bullying research paper topics and questions, as well as bullying essay samples and writing tips. Get inspired with us!

Direct and indirect bullying: compare & contrast
The causes of bullying
Classroom bullying and its effects
Social isolation as a form of bullying
Bullying and academic performance
Passive and active victims of bullying: compare and contrast
The role of social agencies in bullying prevention
Public policy for bullying and aggression
Bullying behavior and psychological health
Aggressive children and their family background

A bullying essay is a popular assignment in various subjects, including psychology, sociology, and education. Writing an excellent paper on the matter requires more than just in-depth research and planning. Don’t worry; there are some tips that will make writing an essay on bullying much easier:

Choose a topic that allows analyzing and interpreting the problem. Instead of merely describing what bullying is, try to dig deeper into its causes, consequences, and solutions. If your professor didn’t suggest any topics, you may research bullying essay topics online and select one that would be exciting for you to explore.
Read sample articles and papers online to see how other students approached the subject. Notice the bits that work and don’t work, and write them out to make the process of creating your essay easier. If you’re struggling with finding enough examples online, you may want to expand your search to discrimination essay topics and materials.
Research what scholars say about bullying. Articles in scholarly journals are an excellent source of information because they are usually trustworthy. If you’re still in school, your ability to navigate the library or online databases will also impress your tutor. As you start researching, you will find that there is a great variety of studies, and it’s challenging to find the relevant ones. Narrowing down your search would help you to do that. For instance, if you are writing a cyber bullying essay, try searching for social media bullying or online anti-bullying services.
Include real-life experiences where relevant. Unfortunately, bullying is a common problem in many institutions, and if you haven’t experienced it, your friends or family members probably have. If your tutor allows personal input, explore real-life experiences with bullying. Note the effects, preventive measures that worked or didn’t work, and what a person used to cope with bullying. If personal input is not allowed, you could ask your friends or relatives for ideas and then find high-quality sources that discuss similar problems.
If you can, be creative about it! A powerful bullying essay example draws from a variety of sources to present material in a creative way and engage readers. Hence, this might be an excellent opportunity for you to include images or graphs in your paper. For example, anti-bullying posters could complement the sections of your work that talks about solutions to the problem. Quotes about bullying coming from famous persons would also be influential, especially if you include them at the beginning of your piece. If you like drawing or painting, you could try to put some of your ideas in graphic form – this will definitely earn you some extra marks! Just make sure to check with your tutor to see whether or not creative input is allowed.
Structure your paper well to avoid gaps or inconsistencies. It would be beneficial to create a detailed bullying essay outline before you start working. A typical essay should include an introduction, two to three main paragraphs, and a conclusion. The first paragraph of your work should consist of some background information, whereas the last one should restate the points and close up the paper. A good bullying essay introduction should also feature a thesis statement that shows what the piece is about.

These tips will help you to write top-notch essays on bullying, as well as on related subjects. Don’t forget to browse our blog some more to find other helpful materials, including essay titles!

The Problem of Bullying and Possible Solutions In general, bullying is a critical and complex issue prevailing among children; thus, it is essential to adopt different solutions to tackle it.
Cyber Bullying Issue Therefore, the goal of this paper is to analyse who the victims of cyber bullying are and the influence it has on them.
Bullying and Child Development Bullying is one of the common vices in schools that influences a lot of growth and development of children. Bullying also affects the ability of children to concentrate in school because they are always on […]
Bullying and Its Effects in Society Secondary research is critical in the development of a background to the research, which helps in determining the validity of the problem and suggested research methodologies.
Social Influence on Bullying in Schools The theory helps us to understand why the stronger members of the school population are likely to “rule” over the weaker members of the school as described in the social hierarchy concept in the theory.
School Bullying and Moral Development The middle childhood is marked by the development of basic literacy skills and understanding of other people’s behavior that would be crucial in creating effective later social cognitions. Therefore, addressing bullying in schools requires strategies […]
The Impact of Workplace Bullying The negative impacts of bullying in the workplace develop as a result of ignorance among employees regarding the vice, unreported cases, as well as the negligence of organizational leaders.
Social Psychological Concepts of Bullying and Its Types Some of the factors that contribute to bullying include poor parenting, economic challenges, lack of mentorship, and jealousy among others. One of the main concepts used to explain bullying is that of parenting roles and […]
Is Cyber Bullying Against Teenagers More Detrimental Than Face-To-Face Bullying? Social networking has also contributed greatly to the issue of cyber bullying especially in making it more harmful as compared to face-to-face bullying.
Bullying in School Face-to-face bullying is an interesting area of study because it clearly demonstrates bullying in school. Students consider bullying as a school culture even though it is contrary to the school rules and regulations of schools.
The Issue of Bullying in the Schools It gives me joy to know that the issue of bullying is now a pubic affair since bullying stories were unheard of when I was growing up.
Cyber Bullying and Positivist Theory of Crime Learning theory approaches to the explanation of criminal behavior have been associated with one of the major sociological theories of crime, the differential association theory.
Verbal Bullying at School: How It Should Be Stopped This paper highlights some of the best practices that can be used by teachers in order to address this problem. So, this information can be of great benefit to them.
Bullying on Social Media Platforms It is consistent and repeating, taking advantage of the Internet’s anonymity with the main goal to anger, scare, or shame a victim.
Moral Development and Bullying in Children The understanding of moral development following the theories of Kohlberg and Gilligan can provide useful solutions to eliminating bullying in American schools.
The Effects of Cyber-Bullying and Cyber-Stalking on the Society In particular, one should focus on such issues as the disrespect for a person’s autonomy, the growing intensity of domestic violence and deteriorating mental health in the country.
The ABC Model of Crisis: Bullying at School The next step is the identification of the nature of the crisis, and thus questions are as follows: Who is bullying you?
Fights and Bullying Among Middle School Learners Alongside the positivist philosophy, the research adopted the survey strategy that involved the use of self-administered questionnaires to collect from the participants.
Bullying as a Relational Aggression This resistance has been one of the obstacles to eliminating the cyber bullying in the schools. Schools and districts have been involved in the Challenge Day activities where children are advised on how to handle […]
Problem of Childhood Bullying in Modern Society To begin with, the family which is the basic and the most important unit in the society as well as the primary socializing agent plays a major role in shaping behavior of children include bullying.
Bullying and Harassment in the Healthcare Workplace This paper is written to explore the origins of discrimination and harassment in the healthcare workplace. Bullying begins early in medical college and residencies; it has been referred to as an element of the learning […]
Cyber-Bullying Is a Crime: Discussion It is easy to see the effects of cyber-bullying but it is hard to find out who is the bully making it hard for authorities to pin the blame on the perpetrator of a crime […]
Workplace Bullying and Its Impact on Performance Workplace bullying refers to a deliberate, repeated, and continuous mistreatment of a worker or a group of workers by one or more colleagues in the workplace.
School Bullying: Causes and Police Prevention It is for this reason that there has been need for the intervention of the community and the government to address the issue of bullying schools lest the school environment becomes the worst place to […]
Bullying and Cyberbullying in Modern Society Cyberbullying among adolescents and teenagers is defined as the purposeful and repetitive harm done by one or more peers in cyberspace as a result of using digital devices and social media platforms.
Incivility, Violence, and Bullying in the Healthcare Workplace The following step is to gather the team and communicate the necessity of change, assigning some individuals for the positions related to the change, in other terms, a support team.
Discouraging and Eliminating Cyber Bullying Resources Role of the resource/input Statement forms To facilitate information transfer to the staff Counseling Personnel To arm students against the problem Bullying report system To create efficient internet enhance report system Regulation implementation documents […]
Bullying in the Workplace Organizational leaders have an ethical obligation to ensure that they deal with cases of bullying within the workplace in a professional manner that demonstrates equality, honesty, and high sensitivity to the needs of others.
Cyber Bullying as a Virtual Menace The use of information and communication technologies to support a deliberate and most of the time repeated hostile behavior by an individual or groups of people with the sole intention of harming others, one is […]
Character Traits of Bullying Despite the fact that such characteristics may differ from child to child, it is the common feature of difference that makes the target children get noticed by the bullies.
Dealing With Workplace Bullying According to the report presented by the University of Louisville, workplace bullying is a repeated action of one employee or a group of employees towards another individual or group. Dealing with bullying in the workplace […]
The Essence of Bullying: Healthy Societal Relations The aggressor frequently abuses the victim’s lower social standing to gain control of the situation and cause harm, which is another characteristic of the phenomenon.
Bullying: Violence in Children and Adolescents Bullying is one of the most common manifestations of peer violence in children and adolescents. Prevention of bullying, cyberbullying included, has to occur in accordance with the IBSE Standards of social and emotional learning.
Bullying, Its Forms, and Counteractions In addition, it is necessary to support those at the center of this bullying, as this can protect them from harmful effects and consequences.
Effective Ways to Deal With Bullying in US Schools Teachers should ensure the bully is aware of the improper behavior, why it is improper, and the repercussions of the behavior.
The Gay Teen Suicide & Bullying The article explains that the ones who survive may have access to extensive facilities, support, and status beyond their world of bullies, which sounds reasonable for me.
Bullying in Nursing: Preventive Measures The prevention of bullying within the workplace is the responsibility of the leaders and managers. One of the significant principles which the leaders can implement is the behavioral code for the employees.
Network Bullying: School Policy Framework The first step is to have a careful conversation with the student and an assessment by the school psychologist to ensure that there is a fright.
How to Reduce Bullying in Senior Facilities One of the main reasons an individual may commit suicide due to bullying is because it may make an individual develop a negative self-image after the bullying incident. Some of the major bullying incidences that […]
Active Shooter and Nursing Bullying Nurses should lock all doors and use tables and other objects to reinforce them to prevent any possibility of the active shooter getting to the patients’ room.
Racist Bullying Among Black Students in US Universities This research focuses on the impact of bullying and racism among African American students in the country. What are the impacts of bullying and racism among Black students in U.S.universities?
Bullying and Autism Spectrum Disorder In fact, bullying as a social phenomenon can be characterized as a social and interaction issue; therefore, it is possible to analyze the connection between autism and acts of bullying and inappropriate behavior.
Eliminating the Problem of Online Bullying Eliminating the problem of online bullying is vital for improving the mental health of adolescents and young adults and allowing them to build their lives free of adverse external influences. It is possible to see […]
Sexual Bullying in Schools and Its Influence The author states the difference in the mental and physical maturation of girls and boys as one of the core roots of the issue.
Bullying in Healthcare and Its Consequences Nancy was big and the manager used that to tease her every opportunity she got. It was important to confront the bully and support the victim.
Queer (LGBT) Teenage Bullying at School The importance of this source to the research is associated with the significant role that youth organizations have to play towards minimizing bullying among LGBT students.
Bullying of Children: Misconceptions and Preventive Measures As a result, the density of shows and articles devoted to bullying creates an illusion that this event appears more often than it does in reality.
Bullying Behavior and Impact of Hegemonic Masculinity Rosen and Nofziger applied a quantitative research design to explore the relationships between students’ bullying experiences and race, age, and socioeconomic status and identify the frequency of bullying.
Bullying and Incivility in Clinical Setting The problem of bullying and incivility in a clinical setting can negatively affect the quality of care provided, so it needs to be managed.
Bullying and Its Influences on a Person It is common for victims of bullying to develop mental health issues, as they were placed in stressful situations and had a constant fear along with depression in some cases. Making friends is one of […]
Overview of the Problem of Bullying Undoubtedly, there is no way each person would be able to share and divide their opinion with everyone else because people are not identical, and they tend to have various perspectives.
“Bullying in Schools”: The Aspects of Bullying In their article, Menesini and Salmivalli examine the current state of knowledge on the topic and thoroughly discuss all of the aspects of bullying.
Analysis of Bullying and Parenting Style Since the given topic usually refers to children and adolescents, it is evident that their parents hold a portion of responsibility because the adults affect the growth and development of young individuals.
Hate Crimes – Bullying More than two-thirds of children and adolescents experience bullying and more than one-fourth of them report extreme forms of coercion.
Bullying Management: Mass Awareness Program Bulletin.”Teachers, trained to help to rebuild trust, confidence, growth, and commitment through mass awareness to arrest bullying in high schools”. The proposed mass action program is meant to promote awareness on the need to stop […]
An Anti-Bullying Program Integrated With PRAISE by Ackerman I chose to describe bullying because of the importance of the topic and due to my personal interest in it. Education will eliminate most of the reasons for bullying and provide students with the E […]
Bullying Through Social Media: Methods An Informed Consent Document will be provided to participants prior to the research, explaining the purpose of the study and promising to protect their identity.
Bullying Through Social Media: Research Proposal The hypothesis of the study is as follows: the role of adolescents in a cyberbullying situation is interconnected with their psychological characteristics.
Bullying Through Social Media In particular, inequality in the position of the persecutor and the victim is evident – the aggressor can be anonymous, and there can be many of them.
Bullying of Nurses During the COVID-19 Pandemic Then, the principles of adult learning will be used to develop and implement an information product to improve the nursing workforce’s bullying awareness and the knowledge of healthy conflict resolution in the workplace.
Bullying in Healthcare Organizations: Impact on Nursing Practice Bullying in business entities is a common phenomenon, but the extent of its influence on the “production process” in healthcare and medicine institutions is only beginning to be recognized.
Workplace Bullying Among Nurses in the Acute Setting Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the frequency of conflicts between nurses and their colleagues and managers has increased significantly in my workplace.
Bullying Perpetration Among School-Aged Children Mucherah et al.examined how the school climate and teachers’ sanctions against bullying relate to the risk of becoming a victim or perpetrator of bullying.
Programming for a Year 5 Class on Bullying As a result, in Lesson 6, they will offer their project addressing bullying behaviour and present it to their class, which is the main aim of the Unit Plan.
Injury and Violence Prevention: – Bullying The aim of preventing injury and violence from bullying is to enable the student to have a healthy social and physical life that will enable them to perform well in their studies and live healthily.
Cyber-Bullying vs. Traditional Bullying: Its Psychological Effects The researchers presented the recent statistics in order to illustrate the negative social and psychological effects of cyber-bullying in contrast to the traditional bullying in schools.
Bullying in the Workplace Old Nurse to New Nurse This unvoiced scourge in nursing is characteristically encouraged by the need of bullies to have a total control of a person. Resignation of nurses due to bullying can lead to shortage of nurses in hospitals.
Bullying and Peer Abuse Especially at work, targets fear coming to work and this will have an adverse result in the efficiency of the staff in the hospital.
Bullying in the Nursing Workplace Bullying in the nursing workplace, in this case, causes the one bullied to have a feeling of defenselessness and takes away the nurses’ right to dignity at his or her workplace.
Cyberbullying and Bullying: Similarities While deciding on fitting and balanced sanctions, it is vital to reflect on the ways in which cyberbullying events differ in effect in comparison to other forms of bullying.
Protection From Bullying: Methods That Work Because of this, it is vital that parents, teachers, and guardians educate themselves on the nature of bullying and work together to develop effective methods and strategies that would help to overcome the problem.
Psychology: Social Media and Bullying The purpose of this paper is to discuss the issue of social media and bullying and express the author’s opinion on the matter.
Bullying of LGBTQ Students in American Schools The chosen article focuses on the issue of bullying of LGBTQ students in American schools and its legal repercussions. The author shows that students who are openly gay or bi, as well as those who […]
Workplace Bullying and Its Impact on People and Society The paper follows a traditional structure with the introduction and body paragraphs that provide essential information devoted to the problem, and improve the understanding of the concept of bullying.
“Bullying Behavior Among Radiation Therapists” by Johnson and Trad The literature review encompassed a considerable number of sources pertinent to the study and recent enough to be relevant; all the publications were dated within the last fifteen years.
Human Rights Issues in Australia: Bullying Among School-Going Age and Young People The focus of the topic of the day is on bullying. It is used to prevent or avoid the occurrence of a bullying experience.
Bullying and Worker’s Harassment in Western Australia In most of the armed services in Australia, new recruits and women are commonly the victims of bullying and harassment despite the fact that it is unacceptable.
Aggression and Bullying in the Workplace Investigation Aggression, the effects of which are often equated with the death wish, is an instinct like any other and in natural conditions, it helps just as much as any other to ensure the survival of […]
Bullying: History and Mechanisms for Prevention Students are encouraged to not participate in bullying and to help prevent bullying of others through positive social reactions to incidences of bullying” and Sharing of Scenarios: “Each group will give feedback and share other […]
Behaviour Management: Bullying The typical behaviors which I saw in the child who got bullied are: The victim of this bullying is physically weak and a soft-natured one.
Conflict Resolution Tactics and Bullying This study is interesting to the extent that it shows how the social environment impacts the development of a child and how it shapes his or her conflict resolution techniques.
School Bullying: Case Analysis Even today there is no generally accepted definition of bullying but it is thought that when an individual is for a long period of time is exposed to repeat negative actions and behavior by one […]
Bullying in the Workplace as a Psychological Harassment Another form of bullying in the workplace is physical assault in the sense that if the workers are not at ease with each other and when the rules and regulations are not at all observed, […]
“Adolescents’ Perception of Bullying” by Frisen et al. The second and the third aims of the study were “to describe how adolescents perceive bullies” and “to describe what adolescents believe to be important in order to stop bullying”, respectively.
The Long Term Effects of Bullying in Elementary School Wolke and Lereya argue that the problem is that the majority of studies on bullying are cross-sectional and only use follow-ups after a short period of time.
Anti-Bullying and Work Quality Improvement Initiative Given the specifics of the work of nurses, conflicts of this kind negatively affect both the whole process of work and the health of patients in particular.
Workplace Bullying, Salivary Cortisol and Long-Term Sickness Absence The purpose of this cohort-based study was to investigate the extent to which cortisol levels were associated with sickness absence and the relationships between workplace bullying and sickness absence through the prism of cortisol use.
Workplace Bullying in Australia It is possible to offer several recommendations that can reduce the risk of bullying in organisations. In this case, more attention should be paid to the absence of mechanisms that can protect the victims of […]
Domestic Violence and Bullying in Schools It also states the major variables related to bullying in schools. They will confirm that social-economic status, gender, and race can contribute to bullying in schools.
Staff Training as a Solution to Workplace Bullying Furthermore, it has an appeal to logos as the writer has facts about the prevalence of workplace bullying in the USA.
The “Bully-Free” Initiative: Bullying in Education The students need to have a clear idea that bullying goes against the rules of the school and which actions may be considered bullying.
Free Speech vs. Bullying Laws One of the topical aspects of modern democracy is the freedom of speech expressed in an ability to come up with personal ideas and the lack of restrictions on the right of expression through publicity.
Gender and Bullying Issues in Nursing A lack of tolerance for workplace harassment and bullying is likely to lead to the deterioration of the situation and further misunderstanding and tension in an organization.
Bullying and Cyberbullying Among Peers They are facing the dilemma of how to react, whether they have to fight a superior force of the enemy or to complain to teachers and parents, undermining their reputation.
Bullying in Schools and Its Major Reasons As of now, the most important goal in research studies covering the topic of bullying in schools is to understand the mechanisms behind bullying promotion and prevention.
Bullying in Schools: Worldwide Study and Survey The parents were asked to rate the frequency of the bullying that their children experience and to describe the experience of bullying that their children went through.
Bullying Prevention Programs Some teachers and professors claim that their students cannot show their potential in their hobbies due to the limitations they experience because of bullies around them. As it is mentioned above, educators do not control […]
Bullying and Its Impact Thus, the current paper is dedicated to the issue of bullying and its effects as well as anti-bullying practices as related to peer victimization.
Bullying Policies in Walton School District and Georgia University The sample bullying policy language in Walton School District is very similar to the language in the policy of the University of Georgia.
Amanda Todd’s Bullying and Suicide Story She was fifteen years old, and her story created a major uproar in the press, as it showed the true nature of bullying and the effects it has on the person.
Bullying in America: Causes and Prevention That is why it is important to pay attention to the reasons why bullying occurs and ways in which it can be reduced.
Bullying, Facts and Countermeasures Whether it is the bully or the bullied, the parents will need to do a lot to see to it that their children are brought up in the best of the behaviors.
Bullying as Social and Criminal Deviance The most important step in the student’s guide to research that I would need to analyze bullying is defining the topic.
Bullying and Legislation in Australian Workplace According to the authors of the article, workplace bullying can be characterized as internal violence. According to the authors of the article, bullying is a widespread phenomenon and is a common attribute of many organizations.
Bullying at Australian School: Causes and Solution The technological breakthrough that was witnessed in the late 90s and the early 2000s also contributed to the development of the phenomenon, sparking the concepts such as cyberbullying and online bullying.
Workplace Bullying in The Playground Never Ends The primary reason for becoming a bully is primarily seen in fear to lose authority or formal positions in an organization and have more institutional power than that of the targets.
Bullying and Suicide in High Schools The main limitation of this research is that the scholars surveyed the victims more often. The victims of cyberbullying also had a tendency to be depressed and contemplate suicide.
School-Aged Children’ Bullying Behaviors It is due to this that the work of Janssen et al.sought to show just how potentially damaging this behavior could be and the potential psychological repercussions it could have on young children due to […]
College Students: Suicide and Bullying-Methods The analysts used this tool to report the mood of the participants by posting quizzes, which the students answered while filling the questionnaire.
Childhood Bullying and Adulthood Suicide Connection In this regard, the seriousness of the issue is depicted in research results that indicate that at least 50% of children and youth in the US have experienced bullying situations as either bullies or victims […]
Girl-To-Girl Bullying and Mean Stinks Program The positive results can be achieved by the implementation of the multiple educational programs, the increase in public awareness, and promotion of the values of the healthy relationships.”Mean Stinks” is exactly the program with the […]
Association of Parenting Factors With Bullying The lack of the parental support is the main cause of students’ deviant behaviors at school, including the cases of bullying, and those parents who pay much attention to developing their career cannot provide the […]
The Problem of Workplace Bullying In particular, this paper will include the discussion of the research articles, reports and case studies that describe the causes of workplace bullying and the strategies used by companies in an effort to overcome it.
College Students: Suicide and Bullying The misconception that bullying is a minor issue among college students has contributed to the high number of students who suffer because of bullying.
Homosexual Students and Bullying Specifically, the section addresses the prevalence of bullying in schools and the level of bullying in bisexuals, gay males, and lesbians.
Social Psychology of Violence and Bullying in Schools Bullying is a common phenomenon in schools and it is reported that it results in violence in learning institutions in the end.
Bullying and Suicide: The Correlation Between Bullying and Suicide Nonetheless, the extensive research shows that the correlation exists and bullying is one of the risk factors for development of suicidal ideas in adolescents.
Nature of Bullying In this paper, central focus is going to be on the nature of bullying of children in my hometown, Orlando Florida, how it can be solved, and most importantly; establishing the importance of having knowledge […]
Cyber Bullying Reduction Program Table of Activities Activity Significance Assembling parents/guardians, students and teachers to announce and explain the program in the institution To enlighten parents/guardians, students and teachers about the rules and regulation enacted due to the threat […]
Cyber Bullying Prevention in Learning Institutions: Systematic Approach To start with, the students are provided with ways of reporting their concern to the educational institution, and when the staff members of the institution receive the report, they evaluate the information together with the […]
School Bullying: Methods for Managing the Problem The investigation of relevant studies on the methods for stopping school bullying reveals that the most effective ways of eliminating this type of behavior include providing training for teachers, encouraging students to participate in the […]
High School Bullying Effective Responses Emphasis will also be made on the kind of audience to read this article because the contents of this study need to be at par with other similar articles in the journal to be selected.
Bullying and Suicide Among Teenagers Specific objectives Analyze the causes of bullying among teenagers in the country Analyze the effects of bullying among victims, perpetrators and by-standers Analyze the relationship between bullying in school and suicide among teenagers in the […]
Social Bullying in Jeff Cohen’s “Monster Culture” It is clear that his part of character is mostly dominant in the childhood stages, as children are not able to develop a sense of morality and predict the consequences of their actions.
Cyber Bullying and Its Forms The difference between the conventional way of bullying and cyber bullying is that in conventional bullying, there is contact between the bully and the victim.
Problem of Workplace Bullying Authority intervention should occur when the employees fail to respond to awareness intervention, and thus decide to continue with their behaviors.
Problem of the Managing Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace Employees in an organization have a specific role that they are supposed to play and this means that there might be shortcomings which should not lead to bullying.
Does Bullying Cause Emotional Problems? However, the current study was relevant because of this design, for the scope of the study covered as well as the results were accurate, and the conclusions drawn were correct.
Ban High School Bullying A number of stakeholders contribute to the high prevalence of bullying in American schools. Schools that ignore bullying are a big part of the problem and they need to be held accountable.
The Problem of Bullying While most states in the United States of America have laws to protect people from bullying, the federal government is yet to enact an anti-bullying law.
Ethical Case: Facebook Gossip or Cyberbullying? The best option to Paige is to apologize publicly and withdraw her comments. The final stage is to act and reflect the outcome of the choice made.
Bullying on the Rise: Should Federal Government Enact Federal-Bullying Laws? This paper will thus use both primary and secondary data to discuss the prevalence of bullying in schools and whether the federal govern should enact federal laws to curb the social vice at school.
Bullying in the Schools Furthermore, the law states that training should be done to the teachers as well as the other members of staff on how to deal with bullying and the law also needs the schools to report […]
Troubled Adolescent due to Bullying His lowered self-esteem would make him to observe the common behaviours of the older boys quietly and accept the situation as a cultural practice.
Workplace bullying: does it exist?
What are the three key elements of bullying?
How does bullying affect those who observe it?
Direct and indirect bullying: what is the difference?
What families do bullies typically come from?
Aggressive children: what is their future?
How to prevent bullying in schools?
School bullying and domestic violence: is there a connection?
Cyberbullying: how to prevent it?
What can parents do to prevent their children from bullying?
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

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How Bullying Manifests at Work — and How to Stop It

Ludmila N. Praslova,
Ron Carucci,
Caroline Stokes

It’s a systemic problem that requires systemic solutions.

The term workplace bullying describes a wide range of behaviors, and this complexity makes addressing it difficult and often ineffective. For example, most anti-bullying advice, from “anger management” to zero-tolerance policies, deals with more overt forms of bullying. Covert bullying, such as withholding information or gaslighting, is rarely considered or addressed. In this piece, the authors discuss the different types of bullying, the myths that prevent leaders from addressing it, and how organizations can effectively intervene and create a safer workplace.

While the organizational costs of incivility and toxicity are well documented, bullying at work is still a problem. An estimated 48.6 million Americans, or about 30% of the workforce, are bullied at work. In India, that percentage is reported to be as high as 46% or even 55% . In Germany, it’s a lower but non-negligible 17% . Yet bullying often receives little attention or effective action.

Ludmila N. Praslova , PhD, SHRM-SCP , author of the The Canary Code , uses her extensive experience with neurodiversity and global and cultural inclusion to help create talent-rich workplaces. She is a professor of graduate industrial-organizational psychology and the accreditation liaison officer at Vanguard University of Southern California.
Ron Carucci is co-founder and managing partner at Navalent , working with CEOs and executives pursuing transformational change. He is the bestselling author of eight books, including To Be Honest and Rising to Power . Connect with him on Linked In at RonCarucci , and download his free “How Honest is My Team?” assessment.
CS Caroline Stokes is a stakeholder capital business sustainability coach and strategist, and CEO of FORWARD , working with leaders and teams in AI, cybersecurity, and digital entertainment.

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5 Essays About Bullying

There have always been bullies, but in more recent years, society has become more aware of the impacts of bullying. With the rise of the internet and social media, cyberbullying has also become a serious issue. In 2018, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics reported that ⅓ of young teens worldwide recently experienced bullying. Overall, boys are at a higher risk than girls – 32% compared to 28%. However, in countries with the most incidents of bullying, girls experienced more. Bullying can drive young people to suicide, self-harm, and other tragic consequences. Here are five essays that shed light on the issue:

“The Origins of Bullying”

Author: Hogan Sherrow | From: Scientific American Sherrow opens his guest post on the Scientific American blog with the story of Jamey Rodemeyer. At age 14, the teen posted messages online describing the pain he endured from bullying and then took his own life. Sadly, this is not uncommon. In this 2011 essay, Sherrow explores why people bully others. Where does this type of behavior come from? To address bullying effectively, we need to understand the roots of bullying. He first defines bullying and presents evidence that bullying is something found in every culture. Sherrow describes it as a “part of the human condition.” Things take a turn into other species as Sherrow asks the question, “Is bullying unique to humans?” Based on research, bullying-like behaviors are found in other animals, including other primates.

This essay presents interesting scientific research on the root of bullying and how it’s evolved in humans. Hogan Sherrow is an assistant professor of anthropology at Ohio University and the director of the Hominid Behavior Research project.

“Instagram Has a Massive Harassment Problem”

Author: Taylor Lorenz | From: The Atlantic This essay opens up with the story of someone who experienced Instagram harassment. At age 14, Brandon joined Instagram to share about his life and rare condition. Soon, he was bombarded with hateful messages, including death threats. It ruined his high school experience. Brandon’s story is just one of countless others where people – often very young teens – are bullied through Instagram. The platform does not have a good track record on monitoring or addressing the bullying. This contrasts sharply with the polished image it projects and markets itself with. While sites like Youtube and Twitter have had bigger dealings with harassment, Instagram seems like an oasis for the internet. What is it doing exactly? According to users who have faced horrific threats, not much. Author Taylor Lorenz is a former staff writer for The Atlantic.

“Shame and Survival”

Author: Monica Lewinsky | From: Vanity Fair Bullying often occurs in a bubble, like a middle school or a social media site, but for Monica Lewinsky, the harassment played out on a much larger scale. In 1998, the 24-year old became the center of a presidential scandal. There were countless jokes made at her expense. Even while Bill Clinton emerged relatively unscathed, the shame followed Lewinsky for years. In this feature from 2014, she recounts her experience with public humiliation, how difficult it was to move on, and the concern she feels for young people today as cyberbullying becomes so prevalent. The essay is a great example of the long-term impact of humiliation on a national scale. Monica Lewinsky is a TV personality, former fashion designer, speaker, and social activist.

“Bullying In the Age of Trump”

By: Emily Bazelon | From: The New York Times Published in November 2016, this op-ed takes a brief look at how bullying evolved with the election of Donald Trump. The Southern Poverty Law Center tracks harassment and hate speech. Since President Trump’s election, they’ve reported a surge in bullying incidents. What this teaches us is that while bullying is always around, it can increase based on what’s going on in the culture. When someone who exhibits classic bullying behavior is put in a position of power, it sends the message that their behavior is acceptable. Emily Bazelon is the author of “Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy” and a staff writer for the New York Times Magazine.

“Bullying has an impact that lasts years”

By: Anita Sethi | From: The Guardian Written in recognition of Anti-Bullying Week, this piece describes the author’s personal experience with bullying and its lasting effects. As a child, Sethi experienced physical and emotional bullying. How bullies use language can be the most hurtful. The first thing they often do is take a victim’s name, so dehumanizing them is easier. Years after the bullying, a person’s mental health can suffer lasting consequences. What can be done? Teaching empathy is key. Anita Sethi is a writer, journalist, and contributor to Three Things I’d Tell My Younger Self.

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Bullying in Schools

Although bullying is sometimes seen as “a part of growing up” or “kids being kids,” imagine the kid who is picked on every day, whether physically, socially, or through cyber-bullying. Think about Rebecca Sedwick, the 12-year-old who committed suicide in Florida following a year of bullying at the hands of two young girls. To Rebecca, the bullying was so serious and distressing that she took her own life.

Students need school to be a positive climate where they feel safe.

Or consider the 8-year-old boy who writes to Santa Claus about his twin sister bullied over her weight: "Dear Santa ... I wanted a (remote control) car and helicopter, but I don't want that anymore. Kids at school are still picking on my sister and it’s not fair … I prayed that they will stop, and she needs your help."

Bullying is a prevalent form of youth violence, particularly in school settings. As illustrated in the examples above, it is defined by aggressive behavior (i.e., behavior that is intentional and mean) that occurs repeatedly over time and within the context of a power imbalance . Although both are harmful to youth, there is an important distinction between bullying and aggression — if there is an occasional conflict or fighting between two children of equal strength, size, and social status, this is aggression, but not bullying.

Most school-aged children are exposed to bullying in some form due to the unequal balance of power and influence that is so common in youth relationships and peer groups. Research shows that bullying and harassment in schools increases in late childhood and peaks in early adolescence, specifically during middle school and typically takes place in unstructured settings such as the cafeteria, hallways, and playground during recess.

Students need school to be a positive climate where they feel safe. This reduces their own stress and potential aggression, allowing them to focus on the learning necessary for them to be successful in their lives.

Fortunately, there are actions that students and school staff can take to prevent bullying and harassment in schools and to create a more positive school climate. The culture of school violence cannot be impacted by only working with bullies and victims alone. It takes consistent and united action by everyone — students, school staff, administrators, and parents.

Click here to learn more about the power of a positive school climate.

Program Details

To better understand how positive efforts can be made, it is important to understand the various types of bullying:

Physical: Related to dominance and is the most prevalent form of aggression and bullying among boys (as compared to relational). Behaviors can include hitting, kicking, and threatening violence.
Relational: Involves the manipulation of social standing or reputations and is the most prevalent form of aggression and bullying among girls (as compared to physical). Behaviors can include starting rumors and social exclusion. Click here to learn more about relational aggression.
Cyber: Involves using electronics to harm others. This type of bullying can be especially harmful because the perpetrators are more difficult to identify, it can more quickly and impulsively be spread to larger audiences, and the physical evidence of the bullying cannot be easily erased from cyberspace. Victims of cyber bullying are often also victims of traditional off-line bullying. Click here to learn more about cyberbullying.

Regardless of the type of bullying, there are several key roles that typically participate in the behavior.

The bully has a power advantage as compared to the victim, whether the bully is physically stronger, more popular, and/or more socially influential.
The bystanders , or other peers that witness the bullying event, play a particularly important and perhaps underrated role in bullying.

Certain sub-groups of adolescents may be at a higher risk for bullying. Click here to learn more.

Between 21 and 49% of youth adolescents report being bullied in the past year
70.6% of youth are bystanders to bullying.
In a 2010 study, 20% of girls and 25% of boys said they were bullied, bullied others, or both in the last month.
In the same study, 90% of third to fifth grade students said they felt sorry for students who are bullied, but sympathy often does not translate into action.
A 2009 study estimated that at least 20.8% of youth in the US were physically bullied, 53.6% were verbally bullied, 51.4% were socially bullied, and 13.6% were cyber bullied at least once over a two-month period.
Victims of cyber bullying often do not report their victimization and are eight times more likely to carry a weapon to school.
A 2011 study showed that bullying at age 14 predicted violent convictions between ages 15 and 20, self-reported violence at age 15 to 18, low job status at age 18, and drug use at 27 to 32 years of age.
Bullying Classroom Check-Up (BCCU)
Preventing Aggression in Schools Everyday (PRAISE)
Friend to Friend

Recommended Resources

Leff SS, Waasdorp TE, Paskewich, BS. The Broader Impact of Friend to Friend (F2F): Effects on Teacher-student Relationships, Prosocial Behaviors, and Relationally and Physically Aggressive Behaviors . Behavior Modification. 2016;40(4):589-610.
Leff SS, Paskewich BS, Waasdorp TE, Waanders C, Bevans KB, Jawad AF. Friend to Friend: A Randomized Trial for Urban African American Relationally Aggressive Girls . Psychology of Violence. 2015;5(4):433-443.
Leff, SS., Waasdorp, TE., & Mehari, KR. An Updated Review of Existing Relational Aggression Programs . In S. M. Coyne & J. M. Ostrov (Eds.), The Development of Relational Aggression 2018, pp. 283-317: Oxford University Press.
Leff SS, Waasdorp TE, Paskewich BS, Gullan RL, Jawad AF, MacEvoy JP, Feinberg BE, Power TJ. The Preventing Relational Aggression in Schools Everyday Program: A Preliminary Evaluation of Acceptability and Impact . School Psychology Review , 2010, Volume 39, No. 4, pp. 569-587.
Leff SS, Costigan T, Power TJ. Using Participatory Research to Develop a Playground-based Prevention Program . Journal of School Psychology . 42 (2004), 3-21.
Leff SS, Gullan RL, Paskewich BS, Abdul-Kabir S, Jawad AF, Grossman M, et al. An Initial Evaluation of a Culturally-adapted Social Problem Solving and Relational Aggression Prevention Program for Urban African American Relationally Aggressive Girls . Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community. 2009;37(4):260-274.
Waasdorp, TE., & Bradshaw, CP. Examining Variation in Adolescent Bystanders’ Responses to Bullying . School Psychology Review , 2018 Volume 47, No. 1, pp.18-33.
Waasdorp, TE., Pas, ET., Zablotsky, B., & Bradshaw, CP. Ten-Year Trends in Bullying and Related Attitudes Among 4th- to 12th Graders . Pediatrics , 2017 Volume 139, No. 6, pp. 1-8.
Perspectives on addressing bullying in schools on the Research in Action blog
Downloadable Tools from CHOP's Center for Violence Prevention
Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Student Bullying: Overview of Research, Federal Initiatives, and Legal Issues (Congressional Research Service)
Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and the New Realities of Girl World
'Masterminds and Wingmen': Preparing your son for the pitfalls of a boy's world
Social Aggression Among Girls
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
StopBullying.gov

Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice.

Hardcopy Version at National Academies Press

4 Consequences of Bullying Behavior

Bullying behavior is a serious problem among school-age children and adolescents; it has short- and long-term effects on the individual who is bullied, the individual who bullies, the individual who is bullied and bullies others, and the bystander present during the bullying event. In this chapter, the committee presents the consequences of bullying behavior for children and youth. As referenced in Chapter 1 , bullying can be either direct or indirect, and children and youth may experience different types of bullying. Specifically the committee examines physical (including neurobiological), mental, and behavioral health consequences. The committee also examines consequences for academic performance and achievement and explores evidence for some of the mechanisms proposed for the psychological effects of bullying. When applicable, we note the limited, correlational nature of much of the available research on the consequences of bullying.

CONSEQUENCES FOR INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE BULLIED

Mounting evidence on bullying has highlighted the detrimental effects of being bullied on children's health and behavior ( Gini and Pozzoli, 2009 ; Lereya et al., 2015 ; Reijntjes et al., 2010 ; Ttofi et al., 2011 ). In this section, the committee reviews the research on physical, psychosocial, and academic achievement consequences for those children and youth who are bullied.

Perspectives from the Field

Being bullied makes young people incredibly insecure: When you're being bullied, you can feel constantly insecure and on guard. Even if you're not actively being bullied, you're aware it could start anytime. It has a big mental and emotional impact—you feel unaccepted, isolated, angry, and withdrawn. You're always wondering how you can do better and how you can escape a bully's notice. You're also stunted because of the constant tension and because maybe you forego making certain friendships or miss out on taking certain chances that could actually help your development.

—Summary of themes from young adults focus group (See Appendix B for additional highlights from interviews.)

Physical Health Consequences

The physical health consequences of bullying can be immediate, such as physical injury, or they can involve long-term effects, such as headaches, sleep disturbances, or somatization. 1 However, the long-term physical consequences of bullying can be difficult to identify and link with past bullying behavior versus being the result of other causes such as anxiety or other adverse childhood events that can also have physical effects into adulthood ( Hager and Leadbeater, 2016 ). In one of the few longitudinal studies on the physical and mental effects of bullying, Bogart and colleagues (2014) studied 4,297 children and their parents from three urban locales: Birmingham, Alabama; 25 contiguous school districts in Los Angeles County, California; and one of the largest school districts in Houston, Texas. Bogart and her team were interested in the cumulative effects of bullying on an individual. They collected data when the cohort was in fifth grade (2004 to 2006), seventh grade (2006 to 2008), and tenth grade (2008 to 2010). Data consisted of responses to the Peer Experience Questionnaire, the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory with its Psychosocial Subscale and Physical Health Subscale, and a Self-Perception Profile. The Physical Health Subscale measured perceptions of physical quality of life.

Bogart and colleagues (2014) found that children who were bullied experienced negative physical health compared to non-involved peers. Among seventh grade students with the worst-decile physical health, 6.4 percent were not bullied, 14.8 percent had been bullied in the past only, 23.9 percent had been bullied in the present only, and nearly a third (30.2%) had been bullied in both the past and present. These effects were not as strong when students were in tenth grade. Limitations to this study were that physical health was measured by participants' perceptions of their health-related quality of life, rather than by objectively defined physical symptoms. It is critical to understand that this study, or other studies assessing correlations between behavior and events, cannot state that the events caused the behavior. Future research might build on this large multisite longitudinal study and obtain more in-depth evidence on individuals' physical health as a consequence of bullying.

In their study of 2,232 twins reared together and separately as a part of the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, Baldwin and colleagues (2015) found that children who had experienced chronic bullying showed greater adiposity subsequently, but not at the time of victimization. The study revealed that at age 18, these children had a higher body mass index ( b = 1.11, CI [0.33, 1.88]), waist-hip ratio ( b = 0.017, CI [0.008, 0.026]), and were at a higher risk of being overweight ( OR = 1.80, CI [1.28, 2.53]) than their nonbullied counterparts ( Baldwin et al., 2015 ).

An important future direction for research is to gather more information on physical consequences such as elevated blood pressure, inflammatory markers, and obesity in light of work showing effects on these outcome of harsh language by parents and other types of early life adversity ( Danese and Tan, 2014 ; Danese et al., 2007 ; Evans et al., 2007 ; Miller and Chen, 2010 ).

Somatic Symptoms

Most of the extant evidence on the physical consequences—somatic symptoms in particular—of bullying pertains to the individual who is bullied. The emotional effects of being bullied can be expressed through somatic disturbances, which, similar to somatization, are physical symptoms that originate from stress or an emotional condition. Common stress or anxiety-related symptoms include sleep disorders, gastrointestinal concerns, headaches, palpitations, and chronic pain. The relationship between peer victimization and sleep disturbances has been well documented ( Hunter et al., 2014 ; van Geel et al., 2014 ).

For instance, Hunter and colleagues (2014) examined sleep difficulties (feeling too tired to do things, had trouble getting to sleep, and had trouble staying asleep) among a sample of 5,420 Scottish adolescents. The researchers found that youth who were bullied ( OR = 1.72, 95% CI [1.07, 2.75]) and youth who bully ( OR = 1.80, CI [1.16, 2.81]) were nearly twice as likely as youth who were not involved in bullying to experience sleep difficulties. One limitation of this study is that it was based on self-reports, which have sometimes been criticized as being subject to specific biases. Patients with insomnia may overestimate how long it takes them to fall asleep ( Harvey and Tang, 2012 ). Another limitation is that the study included young people at different stages of adolescence. Sleep patterns and sleep requirements vary across the different stages of adolescence.

A recent meta-analysis based on 21 studies involving an international sample of 363,539 children and adolescents examined the association between peer victimization and sleeping problems. A broader focus on peer victimization was used because of the definitional issues related to bullying. The authors defined peer victimization as “being the victim of relational, verbal or physical aggression by peers” ( van Geel et al., 2015 , p. 89). Children and youth who were victimized reported more sleeping problems than children who did not report victimization ( OR = 2.21, 95% CI [2.01, 2.44]). Moreover, the relationship between peer victimization and sleeping problems was stronger for younger children than it was for older children ( van Geel et al., 2015 ). This study was based on cross-sectional studies that varied widely in how peer victimization and sleeping problems were operationalized and thus cannot make any claims about causal relations between peer victimization and sleeping problems.

Knack and colleagues (2011a) posited that bullying results in meaningful biological alterations that may result in changes in one's sensitivity to pain responses. A recent meta-analysis by Gini and Pozzoli (2013) concluded that children and adolescents who are bullied were at least twice as likely to have psychosomatic disturbances (headache, stomachache, dizziness, bedwetting, etc.) than nonbullied children and adolescents ( OR = 2.39, 95% CI [1.76, 3.24] for longitudinal studies; OR = 2.17, 95% CI [1.91, 2.46] for cross-sectional studies). Although the use of self-report measures are very common in bullying research and are usually considered to be valid and reliable (Ladd and Kochenderfer- Ladd, 2002 ), their use requires adequate self-awareness on the part of the respondent, and some children who are bullied may be in denial about their experience of having been bullied.

There is also evidence of gender differences in the physical effects of being bullied. For example, Kowalski and Limber (2013) examined the relation between experiences with cyberbullying or traditional bullying (i.e., bullying that does not involve digital electronic means of communication) and psychological and physical health, as well as academic performance, of 931 students in grades 6 through 12 living in rural Pennsylvania. Students were asked how often in the past 4 weeks they experienced 10 physical health symptoms, with scores across these 10 symptoms averaged to provide an overall health index (higher scores equal more health problems). Traditional bullying was defined as “aggressive acts that are meant to hurt another person, that happen repeatedly, and that involve an imbalance of power” ( Kowalski and Limber, 2013 , p. S15). The authors found that girls who were traditionally bullied reported more anxiety and overall health problems than boys who were bullied (females: M = 1.65, SD = 0.41; males: M = 1.42, SD = 0.38). A limitation of this study is that it is correlational in nature and the authors cannot conclude that being a victim of traditional bullying caused the psychological or physical problems.

In summary, it is clear that children and youth who have been bullied also experience a range of somatic disturbances. There are also gender differences in the physical health consequences of being bullied.

Neuroendocrinology of Stress

Psychological and physical stressors, such as being the target of bullying, activate the stress system centered on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis ( Dallman et al., 2003 ; McEwen and McEwen, 2015 ). The role of HPA and other hormones is to promote adaptation and survival, but chronically elevated hormones can also cause problems. Stress has ubiquitous effects on physiology and the brain, alters levels of many hormones and other biomarkers, and ultimately affects behavior. Therefore, both a general understanding of stress during early adolescence and, where known, specific links between stress and bullying can provide insight into the enduring effects of bullying.

The levels of the stress hormone cortisol have been shown to change in targets of repeated bullying, with being bullied associated with a blunted cortisol response ( Booth et al., 2008 ; Kliewer, 2006 ; Knack et al., 2011b ; Ouellet-Morin et al., 2011 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2008 ). To the committee's knowledge, no study has examined bidirectional changes in cortisol, although there is evidence to suggest that cortisol is typically elevated immediately following many types of stress and trauma but blunted after prolonged stress ( Judd et al., 2014 ; Miller et al., 2007 ). Kliewer (2006) did find that cortisol increased from pre-task to post-task (i.e., watching a video clip from the film Boyz 'n the Hood followed by a discussion) among youth who had been bullied, and in a more recent study, Kliewer and colleagues (2012) reported, among African American urban adolescents, that peer victimization was associated with greater sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight reaction) reactivity to a stress task (measured using salivary a-amylase, an enzyme that increases in saliva when the sympathetic nervous system is activated). However, in these studies, the immediate effect of being bullied on stress reactivity was not examined. In contrast, Ouellet-Morin and colleagues (2011) and Knack and colleagues (2011b) did not find an increase in cortisol in bullied youth following a psychosocial stress test but rather found a blunted pattern of response after the test had concluded (see Figures 4-1 and 4-2 ). In order to test whether, in the short-term, bullying produces an increase in cortisol, whereas in the long-term it is associated with a blunted cortisol response (as seen with other types of psychosocial stressors; Judd et al., 2014 ; Miller et al., 2007 ), a longitudinal study is needed to examine bullying chronicity and regulation of the HPA axis. The importance of this future work notwithstanding, there is evidence to support a finding that when stress becomes prolonged, the stress hormone system becomes hypofunctional and a blunted stress response results ( McEwen, 2014 ).

Cortisol reactivity for victimized and nonvictimized adolescents during the Trier Social Stress Test. SOURCE: Adapted from Knack et al. (2011b, Fig. 3, p. 5).

Cortisol responses to a psychosocial stress test (PST) in the total sample and according to maltreatment/bullying victimization. SOURCE: Adapted from Ovellet-Morin et al. (2011, Fig. 1, p. 14).

When stress becomes prolonged, the stress hormone system becomes hypofunctional and a blunted stress response results ( Knack et al., 2012a ; McEwen, 2014 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2013a ). That is, the elevation in cortisol in response to stress fails to occur. Scientists are not exactly sure how this happens, but evidence suggests that the stress system has shut itself down through “negative feedback.” Although on the surface this may seem to be beneficial, it is not. Cortisol has many functions and serves to regulate myriad biological systems; a blunted stress response compromises the orchestration of cortisol's biological functions. The critical importance of the massive over-activation of the stress system producing a blunted stress response is clinically relevant since it is associated with posttraumatic stress disorder and other psychiatric disorders ( Heim et al., 1997 ). It is also relevant for understanding an individual's inability to self-regulate and cope with stress.

Prolonged stress also disrupts the circadian or daily rhythm of cortisol, which is normally elevated in the morning and slowly decreases over the day to result in low levels at bedtime ( Barra et al., 2015 ). An altered circadian rhythm results not only in difficulty awaking in the morning but also in difficulty falling asleep at night. It can cause profound disruption in sleep patterns that can initiate myriad additional problems; sleep deficits are associated with problems with emotional regulation, learning, mood disorders, and a heightened social threat detection and response system ( McEwen and Karatsoreos, 2015 ). Recent research suggests that the consolidation of memories 2 one learns each day continues during sleep ( Barnes and Wilson, 2014 ; Shen et al., 1998 ). Sleep disturbances disrupt memory consolidation, and studies in animals suggest stress during learning engages unique neurochemical and molecular events that cause memory to be encoded by some unique mechanism ( Baratta et al., 2015 ; Belujon and Grace, 2015 ; McGaugh, 2015 ; Rau and Fanselow, 2009 ). Although victims of bullying have sleep problems ( Miller-Graff et al., 2015 ), causal relations between bullying, sleep disorders, learning/memory consolidation, and cortisol dysregulation have not been established. Indeed, these correlations between being a target of bullying and physiological problems may highlight important interactions between events and outcome, but it is also likely that unidentified variables might be the critical causal factors.

It is also noteworthy that the HPA axis showed heightened responsiveness during the peak ages of bullying ( Blakemore, 2012 ; Dahl and Gunnar, 2009 ; Romeo, 2010 ; Spear, 2010 ). For example, cortisol response characteristics in children are such that, when cortisol is activated, the hormonal response is protracted and takes almost twice as much time to leave the blood and brain compared to adults ( Romeo, 2010 , 2015 ). The circadian rhythm of cortisol also seems altered during early adolescence, most notably associated with morning cortisol levels, with levels increasing with age and pubertal development ( Barra et al., 2015 ). Animal models suggest that the extended cortisol response begins in pre-puberty and indicate that recovery from stressful events is more challenging during this age range ( Romeo, 2015 ).

Emotional regulation, including a person's ability to recover from a traumatic or stressful event, involves being able to regulate or normalize stress hormone levels. Before adolescence, children's ability to regulate their stress response can be greatly assisted by parents or other significant caregivers—a process referred to as “social buffering” ( Hostinar et al., 2014 ; Ouellet-Morin et al., 2011 , 2013 ). Specifically, it is well documented in the human and animal research literature that a sensitive caregiver or a strong support system can greatly dampen the stress system's response and actually reduce the amount of stress hormone released, as well as shorten the amount of time the stress hormones circulate within the body and brain. This results in dramatic decreases in stress-related behavior ( Gee et al., 2014 ; Hostinar et al., 2014 ). The social cues actually reduce stress by reducing the activation of the stress system, or HPA axis, at the level of the hypothalamus ( Hennessy et al., 2009 , 2015 ; Moriceau and Sullivan, 2006 ). The social stimuli that buffer children as they transition into adolescence appear to begin to have greater reliance on peers rather than on the caregiver ( Hostinar et al., 2015 ).

Other physiological effects of stress include the activation of the immune system by bullying-induced stress ( Copeland et al., 2014 ; McCormick and Mathews, 2007 ), and a cardiovascular blunting among individuals with a history of being bullied ( Newman, 2014 ). Other hormones and physiological mechanisms are also involved in the stress activation response. For example, cortisol is associated with an increase in testosterone, the male sex hormone associated with aggression in nonhuman animals and with dominance and social challenge in humans, particularly among boys and men ( Archer, 2004 ). In fact, in rodents the combined assessment of testosterone and cortisol provides more predictive value of behavioral variability ( McCormick and Mathews, 2007 ) compared to controls ( Márquez et al., 2013 ). In humans, there is increasing evidence supporting an interaction between testosterone and cortisol in the prediction of social aggression (see Montoya et al., 2012 ). In a study of 12-year-olds, Vaillancourt and colleagues (2009) found that testosterone levels were higher among bullied boys than nonbullied boys, but lower among bullied girls than nonbullied girls. The authors speculated that the androgen dynamics were possibly adrenocortical in origin, highlighting the need to examine testosterone and cortisol in consort. To date, researchers have only investigated cortisol response to being bullied ( Kliewer, 2006 ; Knack et al., 2011b ; Ouellet-Morin et al., 2011 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2008 ), and only one study has examined testosterone and peer victimization ( Vaillancourt et al., 2009 ). There are no studies examining these two important hormones together in relation to bullying perpetration or to being bullied.

Together, the research on both humans and animals suggests that stress is beneficial when it is experienced at low-to-moderate levels, whereas prolonged or repeated stress becomes toxic by engaging a unique neural and molecular cascade within the brain that is thought to initiate a different developmental pathway. Indeed, from animal models, brain architecture is altered by chronic stress, with amygdala activity being enhanced, hippocampal function impaired, and medial prefrontal cortex function being reduced, leading to increased anxiety and aggression and decreased capacity for self-regulation, as well as a more labile mood ( Chattarji et al., 2015 ; McEwen and Morrison, 2013 ; McEwen et al., 2015 ). This stress effect on the brain is particularly strong when experienced during adolescence, but it is even more pronounced if combined with early life adversity ( Gee et al., 2014 ; Hanson et al., 2015 ; Richter-Levin et al., 2015 ; Romeo, 2015 ; Sandi and Haller 2015 ). This could produce behavioral responses that become maladaptive by compromising emotional and cognitive functioning or perhaps it could produce adaptive behavior for a dangerous environment that results in socially inappropriate behavior.

Consequences of Bullying on Brain Function

Being a child or youth who is bullied changes behavior, and neuroscience research suggests this experience may also change the brain ( Bradshaw et al., 2012 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2013a ). The major technique used to monitor brain function in humans is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which works by monitoring blood flow to indirectly assess the functioning of thousands of brain cells over an area of the brain. This technique has rarely been used on either the perpetrator or target of a bullying incident during this very particular social interaction, and for that reason little is known about whether or not the brain of a child who bullies or of a child who has been bullied is different before these experiences or is changed by them. These very specific studies are required before one can make definitive statements about the brain for this topic or for how this information might help develop novel interventions or prevention.

Additionally, it is important to consider two limitations for understanding fMRI. First, one cannot scan the brain of a child during the action of bullying or being a target of bullying. Instead, one must rely on the child staying perfectly still as the investigator tries to approximate one or two aspects of the complex experience that occur in this complicated behavioral interaction. For example, the fMRI task used during a brain imaging session might mimic social exclusion as one facet of bullying, without the full social and emotional context of the real bullying process. Although this is an important methodology, these results need to be assessed with caution at this time and not directly applied as an accepted scientific interpretation of bullying. Therefore, the examples used below to assess brain function rely not on monitoring actual instances of bullying behavior but on monitoring components of behaviors that are thought to occur during a bullying incident.

Second, fMRI monitors a large brain area, which is composed of many smaller brain areas, each of which is involved in many, many behaviors, many of which are not yet fully understood. Thus, it is difficult to determine why the brain area one is examining changed, since that brain area is involved in hundreds of diverse behaviors. For this reason, the results reviewed below need to be viewed as preliminary and should not be misinterpreted as explaining any aspect of the experience of bullying. Rather, these preliminary results highlight the importance of brain assessment before and after bullying experiences, including developing monitorable tasks that more closely approximate the bullying experience within the physical constraints of an immobile subject during an fMRI brain scan. The value of neuroscience is that it enables exploration of brain mechanisms controlling behavior that are not obvious from behavioral assessment.

Social Pain

Whereas there are no studies directly examining bullying using neural imaging techniques, there are several studies examining how the brain processes social pain. Social pain describes the “feelings of pain that follow the experiences of peer rejection, ostracism, or loss” ( Vaillancourt et al., 2013a , p. 242). Social pain is consistent with how people describe their feeling about being bullied. For example, one victim of bullying described the emotional toll of his experience by saying, “I feel like, emotionally, they [his bullies] have been beating me with a stick for 42 years” ( Vaillancourt et al., 2013a , p. 242).

Researchers have demonstrated that when people experience social pain, they activate regions in their brain similar to those activated when they experience physical pain ( Eisenberger, 2012 ; Eisenberger and Lieberman, 2004 ; Eisenberger et al., 2003 ; Kross et al., 2011 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2010a ). Specifically, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, which is part of the prefrontal cortex, seems to be implicated in the processing of both physical and social pain. The fact that physical and social pain have overlapping neural systems might explain why people tend to use physical pain metaphors (e.g., “It broke my heart when she called me ugly.”) when describing their experiences with being humiliated, oppressed, or rejected ( Eisenberger, 2012 ). Eisenberger and Leiberman (2004) noted that these fMRI results are correlations between pain and the anterior cingulate cortex and could reflect other functions of that brain region, such as detecting conflict or errors, different ideas or goals about the task, or individual differences in the task difficulty. In a recent fMRI study by Rudolph and colleagues (2016) , adolescent girls were socially excluded during a laboratory task (i.e., cyberball; Williams et al., 2000 ). Results indicated that activation of the social pain network—the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, and anterior insula—was associated with internalizing symptoms. Of note, this effect was particularly pronounced among adolescent girls with a history of peer victimization. 3

In addition to studies on social pain, there are some studies examining how the brains of children who had been bullied reacted subsequently to different stimuli. Experiences of being bullied can alter an individual's view of the world. While no brain imaging study has directly addressed this issue, a longitudinal study investigating the risk factors of depression found that being a child who was bullied at ages 11 and 12 was associated with a decreased response to reward in the medial prefrontal cortex at age 16, although it was unclear if these brain differences were present before the bullying experiences or developed after them ( Casement et al., 2014 ). The medial prefrontal cortex, which is a brain area involved in memory and learning, was found to be disrupted in children who have been bullied ( Vaillancourt et al., 2011 ). Because it also has countless other functions including decision making, risk taking, and conflict monitoring, disruption of this region compromises one's ability to interpret results with respect to bullying ( Euston et al., 2012 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2011 ).

In another fMRI study involving children, 10-12 years old, who were presented with a task that examined their response to negative feedback stimuli of emotional faces, greater and more extensive brain activation was found in the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex of children who had been rejected by their peers, compared with children in a control group who had not been rejected by peers ( Lee et al., 2014 ), a condition that is highly correlated with being bullied by peers ( r = .57; Knack et al., 2012a ). The prefrontal cortex is a very large brain area with many subareas, all of which serve diverse functions in many different behaviors, not just executive function. Indeed, the prefrontal cortex processes pain, self-regulation, stress integration, and safety signals and has been implicated in psychiatric disorders, higher order learning, extinction (active process to suppress a memory), personality, social behavior, planning, decision making, and many other behaviors and percepts including social exclusion, social/physical pain, and empathy ( Casey and Jones, 2010 ; Spear, 2013 ). These few studies are consistent with other imaging studies demonstrating functional brain differences among individuals who were maltreated in childhood ( Lim et al., 2014 , 2015 ). Taken together, this work supports a finding that being exposed to such adversity during maturation has enduring effects on brain function, although additional research is needed to establish the parameters controlling these effects (and qualifying the generalization).

There is also evidence that stressful events, such as might occur with bullying experiences, impact emotional brain circuits, an inference that is supported by changes in amygdala architecture and function described earlier in animal models in adulthood but more robust changes in brain structure are produced by stress during early life and around adolescence ( Chattarji et al., 2015 ; McEwen and Morrison, 2013 ; McEwen et al., 2015 ). This point is critical because the stress system of adolescents seems to have a heightened sensitivity, and experiencing bullying can increase stress hormones ( Romeo, 2010 , 2015 ; Spear, 2013 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2011 ). Human brain scanning experiments suggest the prefrontal cortex is affected by stress through attenuating the connectivity to the hippocampus and amygdala, which are brain areas critical for emotional regulation and emotional memories ( Ganzel et al., 2008 ; Liston et al., 2009 ). Animal research shows that this connectivity loss is caused by stress-induced atrophy of the prefrontal cortex ( Radley et al., 2006 ), although this brain region does show the ability to recover once the stress has terminated ( Liston et al., 2009 ). One aspect of being a target of bullying is that the memory of the experience seems to be enduring; the unique function of the prefrontal cortex and emotional circuits during preadolescence and adolescence may provide insight into the enduring memories of being bullied. Specifically, one function of the prefrontal cortex is to help suppress memories that are no longer important or true. Typically, memories are not simply forgotten or unlearned. Rather, as we update information in our brain, the old memory is suppressed by overlaying a new memory to attenuate the old memory, an active brain process called extinction ( Milaid and Quirk, 2012 ). With respect to memories of trauma, of being bullied, or of experiencing a threat, the prefrontal cortex is important for attenuating (extinguishing) memories in emotional brain areas, such as the amygdala. Importantly, dramatic changes occur in the extinction system during adolescence, where fear extinction learning is attenuated relative to children and adults ( Pattwell et al., 2012 , 2013 ). This learning mode has been modeled in animals to understand how the process occurs in the adolescent brain ( Kim and Richardson, 2010 ; Nair and Gonzalez-Lima, 1999 ; Pattwell et al., 2012 ). The research suggests that around the time of adolescence, it is more difficult to decrease emotionally aversive memories, such as experiences of being bullied, than at other times in the life cycle. Furthermore, anxious teens (anxiety is sometimes comorbid with experience of being bullied) show even greater difficulties with processing extinction of fear memory ( Jovanovic et al., 2013 ).

In conclusion, the available evidence indicates that the brain functioning of individuals who are bullied is altered (see reviews by Bradshaw et al., 2012 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2013a ). However, it is difficult to ascertain fully what it means when fMRI scans detect an alteration in brain activity. In terms of understanding the prolonged and repeated stress associated with bullying, this research suggests that greater experience with being bullied and repeated exposure as a target of bullying produces a neural signature in the brain that could underlie some of the behavioral outcomes associated with being bullied.

Psychosocial Consequences

In this section, the committee examines what is known about the psychosocial consequences of being bullied. A common method of examining mental health issues separates internalizing and externalizing problems ( Sigurdson et al., 2015 ). Internalizing symptoms include problems directed within the individual, such as depression, anxiety, fear, and withdrawal from social contacts. Externalizing symptoms reflect behavior that is typically directed outwards toward others, such as anger, aggression, and conduct problems, including a tendency to engage in risky and impulsive behavior, as well as criminal behavior. Externalizing problems also include the use and abuse of substances.

Psychological problems are common after being bullied (see review by Hawker and Boulton, 2000 ) and include internalizing problems, such as depression, anxiety, and, especially for girls, self-harming behavior ( Kidger et al., 2015 ; Klomek et al., 2009 , 2015 ). There can also be subsequent externalizing problems, especially for boys (see review by McDougall and Vaillancourt, 2015 ). Rueger and colleagues (2011) found consistent concurrent association with timing of peer victimization and maladjustment. Both psychological and academic outcomes were particularly strong for students who experienced sustained victimization over the school year.

“And these are the kids that are at risk for anxiety and depression and bipolar disorder to begin with, and it almost seems like it's a cycle that makes it worse. So they are isolated and they are angry, they are fearful. Many of them end up severely depressed, attempting suicide, utilizing NSSIs [nonsuicidal self-injuries] for comfort. Some turn to gangs because that is the group that would accept them. So that's when we get involved and we have to start working backwards.”

—Quote from community-based provider discussing bullying during focus group (See Appendix B for additional highlights from interviews.)

Internalizing Problems

A robust literature documents that youth who are bullied often have low self-esteem and feel depressed, anxious, and lonely ( Juvonen and Graham, 2014 ). Data from developmental psychopathology research indicate that stressful life events can lead to the onset and maintenance of depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric symptoms and that for many youth, being bullied is a major life stressor ( Swearer and Hymel, 2015 ). Based on sociometric nominations, targets of bullying also are disliked by the general peer group ( Knack et al., 2012b ).

Several meta-analyses have specifically explored the relation between depression and being bullied at school ( Ttofi et al., 2011 ) and victimized by peers 4 ( Hawker and Boulton, 2000 ; Reijntjes et al., 2010 ). Individuals who had been cyberbullied reported higher levels of depression and suicidal ideation, as well as increased emotional distress, externalized hostility, and delinquency, compared with peers who were not bullied ( Patchin, 2006 ; Ybarra et al., 2006 ). Furthermore, severity of depression in youth who have been cyberbullied has been shown to correlate with the degree and severity of cyberbullying ( Didden et al., 2009 ).

Two meta-analyses found that across several different longitudinal studies using different study populations, internalizing emotional problems increases both the risk and the harmful consequences of being bullied ( Cook et al., 2010 ; Reijntjes et al., 2010 ). Internalizing problems can thus function as both antecedents and consequences of bullying ( Reijntjes et al., 2010 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2013b ). Although most longitudinal studies suggest that psychological problems result from being bullied (see review by McDougall and Vaillancourt, 2015 ) and meta-analyses ( Reijntjes et al., 2010 ; Ttofi et al., 2011 ) support this directionality, there is some evidence that for some youth, the temporal pattern begins with mental health problems ( Kochel et al., 2012 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2013b ).

In a large cohort of Canadian children followed every year from grade 5 to grade 8, Vaillancourt and colleagues (2013b) found that internalizing problems in grades 5 and 7 predicted increased self-reported bullying behavior the following year. They noted that these findings provide evidence for the “symptom-driven pathway” across time with increased internalizing problems predicting greater self-reported peer victimization. This “symptom-drive pathway” was noted from grade 5 to grade 6 and again from grade 7 to grade 8 and was consistent with other published work. For instance, Kochel et al. (2012) reported a symptom-driven pathway in which depressive symptoms predicted peer victimization 5 1 year later (grade 4 to grade 5 and grade 5 to grade 6) and argued that this pathway may result from depressed youth displaying “social deficits,” selecting “maladaptive relationships,” and/or displaying a behavioral style that is perceived poorly by the peer group ( Kochel et al., 2012 , p. 638). Vaillancourt and colleagues (2013b) have also argued that depressed youth could be more “treat sensitive.” That is, these youth may select information from their environment that is consistent with their negative self-opinion. The idea that certain individuals may be more sensitive to environmental cues or make more hostile interpretation of ambiguous social data has been well documented in the literature ( Crick and Dodge, 1994 ; Dodge, 1986 ). This work is consistent with studies showing that social information processing differs in children based on their experience with being bullied and that hypersensitivity can impact their interpretation of social behavior and their self-reports of subsequent incidents of being bullied ( Camodeca et al., 2003 ; Smalley and Banerjee, 2013 ).

Most longitudinal studies to date are of relatively short duration (i.e., less than 2 years) and focus on a narrow developmental period such as childhood or adolescence ( McDougall and Vaillancourt, 2015 ). Nevertheless, there are several recently published studies examining the long-term adult outcomes of childhood bullying. These studies indicate that being bullied does affect future mental health functioning, as reviewed in the following paragraphs.

Most long-term studies of childhood bullying have focused on links to internalizing problems in adulthood, demonstrating robust long-standing effects ( Gibb et al., 2011 ; Olweus, 1993b ; Sourander et al., 2007 ; Stapinski et al., 2014 ). For example, Bowes and colleagues (2015) examined depression in a large sample of participants who reported being the target of bullying at age 13 and found higher rates of depression at age 18 compared to peers who had not been bullied. Specifically, they reported that 14.8 percent of participants who reported being frequently bullied in childhood at age 13 were clinically depressed at age 18 ( OR = 2.96, 95% CI [2.21, 3.97]) and that the population attributable fraction was 29.2 percent, suggesting that close to a third of the variance in depression could be explained by being bullied in childhood ( Bowes et al., 2015 ).

In another longitudinal study using two large population-based cohorts from the United Kingdom (the ALSPAC Cohort) and the United States (the GSMS Cohort), Lereya and colleagues (2015) reported that the effects of childhood bullying on adult mental health were stronger in magnitude than the effects of being maltreated by a caregiver in childhood. Being bullied only (and not maltreated) placed individuals at higher risk for mental health difficulties than being maltreated only (and not bullied) ( OR = 1.6, 95% CI [1.1, 2.2] for ALSPAC cohort; OR = 3.8, 95% CI [1.8, 7.9] for GSMS cohort). Children who were bullied were more likely than maltreated children to be anxious ( OR = 4.9, 95% CI [2.0, 12.0] for GSMS cohort), depressed ( OR = 1.7, 95% CI [1.1, 2.7] for ALSPAC cohort), and to engage in self-harming behavior ( OR = 1.7, 95% CI [1.1-2.6] for ALSPAC cohort) in adulthood ( Lereya et al., 2015 ).

Similarly, Stapinski and colleagues (2014) found that adolescents who experienced frequent peer victimization 6 were two to three times more likely to develop an anxiety disorder 5 years later at age 18 than nonvictimized adolescents ( OR = 2.49, 95% CI [1.62, 3.85]). The association remained after adjusting for potentially confounding individual and family factors and was not attributable to diagnostic overlap with depression. Frequently victimized adolescents were also more likely to develop multiple internalizing problems in adulthood ( Stapinski et al., 2014 ). After controlling for childhood psychiatric problems or family hardship, Copeland and colleagues (2013) found that individuals who were bullied continued to have higher prevalence of generalized anxiety ( OR = 2.7, 95% CI [1.1, 6.3]).

These findings suggest that being bullied and internalizing problems such as depression are mutually reinforcing, with the experience of one increasing the risk of the other in a harmful cycle that contributes to the high stability of being both bullied and experiencing other internalizing problems. These studies also suggest that the long-term consequences of being bullied, which extend into adulthood, can be more severe than being maltreated as a child by a caregiver.

Externalizing Problems

Alcohol and drug abuse and dependence have been associated with being bullied as a child ( Radliff et al., 2012 ). A longitudinal study of adolescents found that those who reported being bullied were more likely to report use of alcohol, cigarettes, and inhalants 12 months later ( Tharp-Taylor et al., 2009 ), compared to those who did not report being bullied. More longitudinal research that tracks children through adulthood is needed to fully understand the link between being bullied and substance abuse (see review by McDougall and Vaillancourt, 2015 ).

Several studies show links between being bullied and violence or crime, especially for men ( Gibb et al., 2011 ; McGee et al., 2011 ; Sourander et al., 2007 , 2011 ). A meta-analysis by Reijntjes and colleagues (2011) that included studies with data on 5,825 participants showed that after controlling for externalizing symptoms at baseline, peer victimization—under which they included being the target of teasing, deliberate exclusion, and being the target of physical threats and malicious gossip—was associated over time with exhibiting externalizing problems such as aggression, truancy, and delinquency ( r = .14, 95% CI [.09, .19]). This research team also found that externalizing problems predicted changes in peer victimization over time ( r = .13, 95% CI [.04, .21]) and concluded that there is a bidirectional relationship between peer victimization and externalizing problems.

Psychotic Symptoms

Evidence from the broader research on childhood trauma and stress indicates that earlier adverse life experiences, such as child abuse, are associated with the development of psychotic symptoms later in life ( Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, 2014b ). Until recently, the association between bullying and psychotic symptoms has been understudied ( van Dam et al., 2012 ). Two recent meta-analyses support the association between bullying and the development of psychotic symptoms later in life ( Cunningham et al., 2015 ; van Dam et al., 2012 ). van Dam and colleagues (2012) conducted a meta-analysis of 14 studies to assess whether being bullied in childhood is related to the development of psychotic (either clinical or nonclinical) symptoms. (Nonclinical psychotic symptoms 7 place individuals at risk for the development of psychotic disorders ( Cougnard et al., 2007 ).) Results from the analyses of studies that examined the association between bullying and nonclinical symptoms (six studies) were more definitive (adjusted OR = 2.3; 95% CI [1.5, 3.4]), with stronger associations when there was an increased frequency, severity, and persistence of bullying ( Cougnard et al., 2007 ). Although some research has found this association, a recent longitudinal study from New Zealand found that the link between bullying and the development of psychosis later in life is likely not causal but instead reflects the fact that individuals who display disordered behaviors across childhood and adolescences are more likely to become bullying targets ( Boden et al., 2016 ) An analysis of studies that examined the association between bullying and psychosis in clinical samples was inconclusive ( van Dam et al., 2012 ).

A recent meta-analysis conducted by Cunningham and colleagues (2015) examined ten European prospective studies, four from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. This analysis found that individuals who were bullied were more than twice as likely to develop later psychotic symptoms, compared to those who were not bullied ( OR = 2.1, 95% CI [1.1, 4.0]). These results were consistent in all but one of the studies included in the meta-analysis. More longitudinal research is needed to more fully understand the mechanisms through which trauma such as bullying may lead to the development of psychotic symptoms ( Cunningham et al., 2015 ; van Dam et al., 2012 ). Importantly, this research will need to be prospective and examine the development of bullying and psychotic symptoms in order to truly identify the temporal priority. The inclusion criteria for the Cunningham and colleagues (2015) meta-analysis included that the study had to be prospective and had to include a measure of psychosis and that bullying needed to be reported before the age of 18. Although the authors stated that “bullying appears to cause later development of psychosis,” such a conclusion requires that mental health functioning be assessed early and over time, as it is possible that premorbid characteristics may make individuals targets for poor peer treatment (see Kochel et al., 2012 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2013b , regarding depression leading to peer victimization).

Academic Performance Consequences

A growing literature has documented that targets of bullying suffer diminished academic achievement whether measured by grades or standardized test scores ( Espelage et al., 2013 ; Nakamoto and Schwartz, 2010 ). Cross-sectional research indicates that children who are bullied are at increased risk for poor academic achievement ( Beran, 2009 ; Beran and Lupart, 2009 ; Beran et al., 2008 ; Glew et al., 2005 ; Neary and Joseph, 1994 ; see also meta-analysis by Nakamoto and Schwartz, 2010 ) and increased absenteeism ( Juvonen et al., 2000 ; Kochenderfer and Ladd, 1996 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2013b ).

The negative relation between being bullied and academic achievement is evident as early as kindergarten ( Kochenderfer and Ladd, 1996 ) and continues into high school ( Espinoza et al., 2013 ; Glew et al., 2008 ). In a 2-week daily diary study with ninth and tenth grade Latino students, Espinoza and colleagues (2013) reported that on days when adolescents' reports of being bullied were greater than what was typical for them, they also reported more academic challenges such as doing poorly on a quiz, test, or homework and felt like less of a good student. Thus, even episodic encounters of being bullied can interfere with a student's ability to concentrate on any given day. In a cross-sectional study of more than 5,000 students in grades 7, 9, and 11, Glew and colleagues (2008) found that for every 1-point increase in grade point average (GPA), the odds of being a child who was bullied (versus a bystander) decreased by 10 percent. However, due to the cross-sectional nature of this study, this association does not establish whether lower academic achievement among children who were bullied was a consequence of having been bullied.

Several short-term (one academic year) longitudinal studies indicate that being bullied predicts academic problems rather than academic problems predicting being a target of bullying ( Kochenderfer and Ladd, 1996 ; Schwartz et al., 2005 ). Given the impairments in brain architecture associated with self-regulation and memory in animal models and the currently limited imaging data in human subjects, this is a reasonable inference, although reverse causation is possible. For instance, early life abuse and neglect impair these same abilities, lower self-esteem, and may make an individual more likely to be a target of bullying. In one of the few longitudinal studies to extend beyond one year, Juvonen and colleagues (2011) examined the relation between victimization 8 and academic achievement across the three years of middle school. Academic adjustment was measured by both year-end grades and teacher reports of engagement. These authors found that more self-reported victimization was related to lower school achievement from sixth to eighth grade. For every 1-unit increase in victimization (on a 1-4 scale), GPA declined by 0.3 points.

Other short-term longitudinal studies found similar results. For example, Nansel and colleagues (2003) found that being bullied in a given year (grade 6 or 7) predicted poor academic outcomes the following year, after controlling for prior school adjustment and if they were previously targets of bullying or not. Similarly, Schwartz and colleagues (2005) reported a negative association for third and fourth grade children between victimization 9 and achievement 1 year later. In addition, Baly and colleagues (2014) found that the cumulative impact of being bullied over 3 years from sixth grade to eighth grade had a negative impact on GPA and standardized test scores.

However, other studies have not found such associations. For instance, Kochenderfer and Ladd (1996) found no relation between being bullied and subsequent academic achievement in their study of students assessed in the fall and spring of kindergarten, nor did Rueger and Jenkins (2014) in their study of seventh and eighth graders assessed in the fall and spring of one academic year. Feldman and colleagues (2014) also reported no association between being a target of bullying and academic achievement in their 5-year longitudinal study of youth ages 11-14. Poor academic performance can also be a predictor of peer victimization ( Vaillancourt et al., 2013b ). The authors found that poor writing performance in third grade predicted increased bullying behavior in fifth grade that was stable until the end of eighth grade.

The longitudinal associations between peer victimization and school attendance are also equivocal, with some showing positive associations ( Baly et al., 2014 ; Buhs et al., 2006 ; Gastic, 2008 ; Kochenderfer and Ladd, 1996 ; Smith et al., 2004 ) and others not finding a statistically significant association ( Forero et al., 1999 ; Glew et al., 2008 ; Rueger et al., 2011 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2013b ). 10

In summary, there have been a number of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies that have provided support for a relation between being bullied and increased risk for poor academic achievement. However, given the inconsistent results found with longitudinal studies, more research is warranted in this area to more fully ascertain the relation between being bullied and academic achievement over time.

CONSEQUENCES FOR INDIVIDUALS WHO BULLY

There is evidence that supports a finding that individuals who bully others have contradictory attributes ( Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, 2014a ; Vaillancourt et al., 2010b ). Research suggests that there are children and adolescents who bully others because they have some form of maladjustment ( Olweus, 1993a ) or, as mentioned in Chapter 3 , are motivated by establishing their status in a social network ( Faris and Ennett, 2012 ; Rodkin et al., 2015 ; Sijtsema et al., 2009 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2003 ). Consequently, the relation between bullying, being bullied, acceptance, and rejection is complex ( Veenstra et al., 2010 ). This complexity is also linked to a stereotype held by the general public about individuals who bully. This stereotype casts children and youth who bully others as being high on psychopathology, low on social skills, and possessing few assets and competencies that the peer group values ( Vaillancourt et al., 2010b ). Although some occurrence of this “stereotypical bully” or “classic bully” is supported by research ( Kumpulainen et al., 2001 ; Olweus, 1993a ; Sourander et al., 2007 ), when researchers consider social status in relation to perpetration of bullying behavior, a different profile emerges. These studies suggest that most children and youth who bully others wield considerable power within their peer network and that high-status perpetrators tend to be perceived by peers as being popular, socially skilled, and leaders ( de Bruyn et al., 2010 ; Dijkstra et al., 2008 ; Peeters et al., 2010 ; Thunfors and Cornell, 2008 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2003 ). High-status bullies have also been found to rank high on assets and competencies that the peer group values such as being attractive or being good athletes ( Farmer et al., 2003 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2003 ); they have also been found to rank low on psychopathology and to use aggression instrumentally to achieve and maintain hegemony (for reviews, see Rodkin et al., 2015 , and Vaillancourt et al., 2010b ). Considering these findings of contrasting characteristics of perpetrators of bullying behavior, it makes sense that the research on outcomes of perpetrating is mixed. Unfortunately, most research on the short- and long-term outcomes of perpetrating bullying behavior has not taken into account this heterogeneity when considering the impact to children and youth who have bullied their peers.

Psychosomatic Consequences

Findings from cross-sectional studies that reported data on individuals who bullied others have shown that these individuals are at risk of developing psychosomatic problems ( Gini, 2008 ; Srabstein et al., 2006 ). Gini and Pozzoli (2009) conducted a meta-analysis to test whether children involved in bullying behavior in any role are at risk for psychosomatic problems. They included studies ( n = 11) that examined the association between bullying involvement and psychosomatic complaints in children and adolescents between the ages of 7 and 16. The studies included in the meta-analysis used self-report questionnaires; reports from peers, parents, or teachers; and clinical interviews that resulted in a clinical rating of the subject's behaviors and health problems. The included studies also had enough information to calculate effect sizes. An analysis of six studies that met the selection criteria revealed that children who bully had a higher risk ( OR = 1.65, 95% CI [1.34, 2.04]) of exhibiting psychosomatic problems than their uninvolved peers.

This meta-analysis was limited because of its inclusion of cross-sectional and observational studies. Such studies do not allow firm conclusions on cause and effect; hence, the association between bullying perpetration and psychosomatic problems may be difficult to interpret. The methodologies used in the studies make them susceptible to bias and misclassification due to the reluctance of individuals who bully to identify themselves as perpetrators of bullying behavior. Also, the different forms of victimization included in the underlying studies were not reported in this meta-analysis. Additional research is needed to examine the involvement in perpetrating bullying behavior and its short- and long-term psychosomatic consequences.

Psychotic Problems

Using a population-based cohort study, Wolke and colleagues (2014) examined whether bullying perpetration and being a target of bullying in elementary school predicted psychotic experiences 11 in adolescence. The authors assessed 4,720 individuals between the ages of 8 and 11 who were involved in bullying either as perpetrators or targets. At age 18, suspected or definite psychotic experiences were assessed using semistructured interviews. After controlling for the child's gender, intelligence quotient at age 8, and childhood behavioral and emotional problems, the researchers found that both individuals who are bullied (child report at age 10: OR = 2.4, 95% CI [1.6, 3.4]; mother report: OR = 1.6, 95% CI [1.1, 2.3]) and individuals who bullied others (child report at age 10: OR = 4.9, 95% CI [1.3, 17.7]; mother report: OR = 1.2, 95% CI [0.46, 3.1]) had a higher prevalence of psychotic experiences at age 18. The authors concluded that “involvement in any role in bullying may increase the risk of developing psychotic experiences in adolescence” ( Wolke et al., 2014 , p. 2208).

In summary, several studies have focused on the consequences of bullying for individuals who are bullied and have also reported more broadly on consequences for perpetrators of aggressive behavior (see Gini and Pozzoli, 2009 ; Lereya et al., 2015 ; Reijntjes et al., 2010 ; Ttofi et al., 2011 ), but the consequences of bullying involvement for individuals who perpetrate bullying behavior have been rarely studied to date. That is, although there is a rich literature on aggressors and the outcomes of being aggressive, there are few studies examining bullying perpetration specifically, taking into account the power imbalance, repetition, and intentionality that differentiates aggression from bullying from other forms of peer aggression. As discussed in Chapter 2 , the available research on the prevalence of bullying behavior focuses almost entirely on the children who are bullied. More research, in particular longitudinal research, is needed to understand the short- and long-term physical health, psychosocial, and academic consequences of bullying involvement on the individuals who have a pattern of bullying others, when those individuals are distinguished from children who engage in general aggressive behavior.

CONSEQUENCES FOR INDIVIDUALS WHO BULLY AND ARE ALSO BULLIED

Individuals who bully and are also bullied experience a particular combination of consequences that both children who are only perpetrators and children who are only targets also experience, such as comorbidity of both externalizing and internalizing problems, negative perception of self and others, poor social skills, and rejection by the peer group. However, at the same time this combination of roles in bullying is negatively influenced by the peers with whom they are interacting ( Cook et al., 2010 ). After controlling for adjustment problems existing prior to incidents of bullying others or being bullied, a nationally representative cohort study found that young children who have been both perpetrators and targets of bullying tended to develop more pervasive and severe psychological and behavioral outcomes than individuals who were only bullied ( Arseneault et al., 2006 ).

Adolescents who were involved in cyberbullying as both perpetrators and targets have been found to be most at risk for negative mental and physical health consequences, compared to those who were only perpetrators, those who were only targets, or those who only witnessed bullying ( Kowalski and Limber, 2013 ; Nixon, 2014 ). For example, the results from a study by Kowalski and Limber (2013) that examined the relation between children's and adolescents' experiences with cyberbullying or traditional bullying and outcomes of psychological health, physical health, and academic performance showed that students who were both perpetrators and targets had the most negative scores on most measures of psychological health, physical health, and academic performance, when compared to those who were only perpetrators, only targets, or only witnesses of bullying incidents.

Wolke and colleagues (2001) examined the association of direct and relational bullying experience with common health problems and found that students ages 6-9 who bullied others and were also bullied by others had more physical health symptoms than children who were only perpetrators or were not involved in bullying behavior. Hunter and colleagues (2014) evaluated whether adolescents who were involved in bullying experienced sleep difficulties more than adolescents who were not involved. They analyzed surveys that were originally collected on behalf of the UK National Health Service and had been completed by adolescents ages 11-17. Controlling for gender, school-stage, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and other factors known to be associated with sleep difficulties—alcohol consumption, tea or coffee consumption, and illegal drug use—the authors found that individuals who were both perpetrators and targets in bullying incidents were almost three times more likely ( OR = 2.90, 95% CI [1.17, 4.92]) to experience these sleep difficulties, compared to uninvolved young people. Additional research is needed to identify the mechanisms underlying short- and long-term physical health outcomes of individuals who bully and are also bullied.

There is evidence that individuals who are both perpetrators and targets of bullying have the poorest psychosocial profile among individuals with any involvement in bullying behavior; their psychosocial maladjustment, peer relationships, and health problems are similar to individuals who are only bullied, while their school bonding and substance use is similar to individuals who are only perpetrators ( Graham et al., 2006 ; Nansel et al., 2001 , 2004 ). Individuals who both bully and are also bullied by others experience a greater variety of both internalizing and externalizing symptoms than those who only bully or those who are only bullied ( Kim et al., 2006 ).

Some meta-analyses have examined the association between involvement in bullying and internalizing problems in the school-age population and concluded that that individuals who are both perpetrators and targets of bullying had a significantly higher risk for psychosomatic problems than individuals who were only perpetrators or who were only targets ( Gini and Pozzoli, 2009 ; Reijntjes et al., 2010 ). In their meta-analysis, Gini and Pozzoli (2009) reviewed studies that examined the association between involvement in bullying and psychosomatic complaints in children and adolescents. Analysis of a subgroup of studies ( N = 5) that reported analyses for individuals who bully and are also bullied by others showed that these individuals have a significantly higher risk for psychosomatic problems than uninvolved peers ( OR = 2.22, 95% CI [1.77, 2.77]).

Studies suggest that individuals who bully and who are also bullied by others are especially at risk for suicidal ideation and behavior, due to increased mental health problems (see Holt et al., 2015 , and Box 4-1 ).

Suicidality: A Summary of the Available Meta-Analyses.

Similar to individuals who bully, individuals who bully and are also bullied by others often demonstrate heightened aggression compared with non-involved peers. Compared to these other groups, they are by far the most socially ostracized by their peers, most likely to display conduct problems, and least engaged in school, compared with those who are either just perpetrators or just targets; they also report elevated levels of depression and loneliness ( Juvonen et al., 2003 ). Additional research is needed that examines the unique consequences of those children and youth characterized as “bully-victims” because often they are not separated out from “pure victims” (those who are bullied only) in studies. School shootings are a violent externalizing behavior that has been associated with consequences of bullying behavior in the popular media (see Box 4-2 for additional detail).

Bullying and School Shootings.

Several studies have examined the associations between bullying involvement in adolescence and mental health problems in adulthood and have found that individuals who have bullied others and have also been bullied had increased risk of high levels of critical symptoms of psychosis compared to non-involved peers ( Gini, 2008 ; Sigurdson et al., 2015 ). Research is limited in this area, and the topic warrants further investigation.

CONSEQUENCES OF BULLYING FOR BYSTANDERS

Bullying cannot be viewed as an isolated phenomenon; it is intertwined within the particular peer ecology that emerges, an ecology constituted of social processes that serve particular functions for the individual and for the group ( Rodkin, 2004 ). Bullying frequently occurs in the presence of children and youth who are bystanders or witnesses. Research indicates that bullying can have significant adverse effects on these bystanders ( Polanin et al., 2012 ).

Bystanders have reported feelings of anxiety and insecurity ( Rigby and Slee, 1993 ) which stemmed, in part, from fears of retaliation ( Musher-Eizenman et al., 2004 ) and which often prevented bystanders from seeking help ( Unnever and Cornell, 2003 ). In a study to explore the impact of bullying on the mental health of students who witness it, Rivers and colleagues (2009) surveyed 2,002 students, ages 12-16 and attending 14 schools in the United Kingdom, using a questionnaire that included measures of bullying at school, substance abuse, and mental health risk. They found that witnessing bullying significantly predicted elevated mental health risks even after controlling for the effect of also being a perpetrator or victim (range of = .07 to .15). They also found that being a witness to the bullying predicted elevated levels (= .06) of substance use. Rivers and Noret (2013) found that, compared to students who were not involved in bullying, those who observed bullying reported more symptoms of interpersonal sensitivity (e.g., feelings of being hurt or inferior), helplessness, and potential suicide ideation.

In conclusion, there is very limited research available on the consequences of witnessing bullying for those children and youth who are the bystanders. Studies of bystander behavior have traditionally sought to understand their motives for participation in bullying ( Salmivalli, 2010 ), their roles ( Lodge and Frydenberg, 2005 ; Salmivalli et al., 1996 ), their behavior (either reinforcing the bully or defending the victim) in bullying situations ( Salmivalli et al., 2011 ), and why observers intervene or do not intervene ( Thornberg et al., 2012 ) from a social dynamic perspective, without exploring the emotional and psychological impact of witnessing bullying. More research is needed to understand these consequences.

MULTIPLE EXPOSURES TO VIOLENCE 12

One subpopulation of school-aged youth that may be at increased risk for detrimental short- and long-term outcomes associated with bullying victimization is poly-victims. Finkelhor and colleagues (2007) coined the terms “poly-victim” and “poly-victimization” to represent a subset of youth who experience multiple victimizations of different kinds—such as exposure to (1) violent and property crimes (e.g., assault, sexual assault, theft, burglary), (2) child welfare violations (child abuse, family abduction), (3) the violence of warfare and civil disturbances, and (4) being targets of bullying behavior—and who manifest high levels of traumatic symptomatology. The identification of a poly-victim is grounded not only in the frequency of the victimization but also in victimization across multiple contexts and perpetrators ( Finkelhor et al., 2007 , 2009 ).

Ford and colleagues (2010) determined that poly-victims were more likely to meet criteria for psychiatric disorder, including being two times more likely to report depressive symptoms, three times more likely to report posttraumatic stress disorder, up to five times more likely to use alcohol or drugs, and up to eight times more likely to have comorbid disorders, compared to youth that did not meet criteria for poly-victimization. Poly-victims often engaged in delinquent behavior, associated with deviant peers ( Ford et al., 2010 ), and were entrenched within the juvenile justice system ( Ford et al., 2013 ). Students who were poly-victims in the juvenile justice system reported higher levels of traumatic symptomatology ( Finkelhor et al., 2005 ). However, it is currently unclear whether being bullied plays a major or minor role in poly-victimization.

MECHANISMS FOR THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF BULLYING

In the following sections, the committee describes five potential mechanisms for the psychological effects of bullying behavior for both the children who are bullied and children who bully. These include self-blame, social cognition, emotional dysregulation, genetic predisposition to mental health outcomes and bullying, and telomere erosion. 13

One important mechanism for the psychological effects of bullying is how the targets of bullying construe the reason for their plight ( Graham, 2006 ). For example, a history of bullying and the perception of being singled out as a target might lead an individual to ask “Why me ?” In the absence of disconfirming evidence, some might come to blame themselves for their peer relationship problems. Self-blame and accompanying negative affect can then lead to many negative outcomes, including low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression ( Graham and Juvonen, 1998 ).

The adult rape literature (another form of victimization) highlights a correlation between experiencing rape and self-attributions that imply personal deservingness, labeled characterological self-blame, since they may lead to the person thinking of themselves as chronic victims ( Janoff-Bulman, 1979 ). From an attributional perspective, characterological self-blame is internal and therefore reflects on the self; it is stable and therefore leads to an expectation that harassment will be chronic; and it is uncontrollable, suggesting an inability to prevent future harassment. Attributing negative outcomes to internal, stable, and uncontrollable causes leads individuals to feel both hopeless and helpless ( Weiner, 1986 ). In contrast, behavioral self-blame (e.g., “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time”) implies a cause that is both unstable (the harassment is not expected to occur again) and controllable (there are responses in one's repertoire to prevent future harassment). Several researchers in the adult literature have documented that individuals who make characterological self-blaming attributions for negative outcomes cope more poorly, feel worse about themselves, and are more depressed than individuals who make attributions to their behavior (see Anderson et al., 1994 ). Research with early adolescents also revealed that characterological self-blame for academic and social failure resulted in heightened depression ( Cole et al., 1996 ; Tilghman-Osborne et al., 2008 ).

In the first attribution study focused specifically on bullying, Graham and Juvonen (1998) documented that sixth grade students with reputations as targets made more characterological self-blaming attributions for harassment than behavioral self-blaming attributions. Characterological self-blame, in turn, partly mediated the relationship between victim status and psychological maladjustment as measured by depression and social anxiety. Many studies since then have documented the relation between being targets of bullying, characterological self-blame, and maladjustment ( Graham et al., 2006 , 2009 ; Perren et al., 2012 ; Prinstein et al., 2005 ). Furthermore, bullied youth who endorsed characterological self-blame were likely to develop negative expectations about the future, which may also increase risk for continued bullying. For example, Schacter and colleagues (2014) reported that characterological self-blame endorsed in the fall of sixth grade predicted increases in reports of being bullied in the spring of sixth grade. Self-blame can then instigate psychological distress over time as well as increases in experiences of being bullied.

Such findings have implications for interventions targeted at bullied youth. The goal would be to change targets' maladaptive thoughts about the causes of their plight. For example, one could seek more adaptive attributions that could replace characterological self-blame. In some cases, change efforts might target behavioral explanations for being bullied (e.g., “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time”). In such cases, the goal would be to help targeted youth recognize that they have responses in their repertoire to prevent future encounters with harassing peers—that is, the cause is unstable and controllable ( Graham and Bellmore, 2007 ). External attributions also can be adaptive because they protect self-esteem ( Weiner, 1986 ). Knowing that others are also victims or that there are some aggressive youth who randomly single out unsuspecting targets can help lessen the tendency to self-blame ( Graham and Bellmore, 2007 ; Nishina and Juvonen, 2005 ). This approach of altering dysfunctional thoughts about oneself to produce changes in affect and behavior has produced a rich empirical literature on attribution therapy in educational and clinical settings (see Wilson et al., 2002 ). The guiding assumption of that research can be applied to alleviating the plight of targets of bullying.

Social Cognition

The most commonly cited models of social cognitive processes often connect back to work by Bandura (1973) , as well as to more recent conceptualizations by Crick and Dodge (1994) . These models have been applied to understanding aggressive behavior, but there has been less research applying these models to bullying behavior specifically. Related research by Anderson and Bushman (2002) on their general aggression model allows for a more focused understanding of the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that contribute to the development of the negative outcome. This framework characterizes the inputs, the routes, the proximal processes, and the outcomes associated with aggressive behavior and either being targeted by or perpetrating bullying behavior ( Kowalski and Limber, 2013 ; Vannucci et al., 2012 ). Although these theories pertain to aggressive behavior more broadly, given that bullying is considered by most researchers to be a specific form of aggressive behavior, these broader theories may also improve understanding of the etiology and development of bullying. For example, research on hostile attribution bias suggests that aggressive youth are particularly sensitive to ambiguous and potentially hostile peer behaviors. Similar hypersensitivity to threat is also likely present in youth who bully.

Another particular element of social cognitive processes that has been linked with aggressive behavior is normative beliefs about aggressive retaliation ( Crick and Dodge, 1994 ; Huesmann and Guerra, 1997 ). Such beliefs include the belief that aggressive retaliation is normative, acceptable, or justified, given the context of provocation. There has been exploration of links between these beliefs and both reactive and proactive aggression. However, there has been relatively limited research specifically focused on bullying behavior. Yet, the available literature suggests that although it may seem as if targets of bullying would most likely endorse such attitudes, it is the perpetrators of bullying, including those who are involved in bullying as both a perpetrator and a target, who are mostly likely to support aggressive retaliation ( Bradshaw et al., 2009 , 2013 ; O'Brennan et al., 2009 ).

Emotion Dysregulation

Attempts to identify mechanisms linking bullying to adverse outcomes have largely focused on social-cognitive processes ( Dodge et al., 1990 ) as described above. More recently, researchers have begun to examine emotion dysregulation as an additional mechanism that explains associations between peer victimization and adverse outcomes. Emotion regulation refers to the strategies that people use to “increase, maintain, or decrease one or more components of an emotional response” ( Gross, 2001 , p. 215). One's choices among such strategies have implications not only for how robustly one responds to a stressor but also for how quickly one can recover from a stressful experience. Several studies have shown that emotion regulation difficulties—also called emotion dysregulation —increase youths' risk of exposure to peer victimization ( Hanish et al., 2004 14 ) and to bullying ( Mahady Wilton et al., 2000 ). However, it is important to understand whether peer victimization itself causes emotion regulation difficulties, which in turn predict the adverse outcomes that result from peer victimization (e.g., depression, aggressive behaviors).

Several lines of evidence support the hypothesis that emotion dysregulation may account for the relationship between peer victimization and adverse outcomes among adolescents. First, constructs that are related to peer victimization—including social exclusion ( Baumeister et al., 2005 ) and stigma ( Inzlicht et al., 2006 )—impair self-regulation. Second, chronic stress during childhood and adolescence leads to deficits in emotion regulation ( Repetti et al., 2002 ). Bullying has been conceptualized as a chronic stressor for children who are the perpetrators and the targets ( Swearer and Hymel, 2015 ), which in turn may disrupt emotion regulation processes. Third, laboratory-based studies have indicated that peer victimization is associated with emotion dysregulation (e.g., self-directed negative emotion, emotional arousal and reactivity) in the context of a novel peer interaction ( Rudolph et al., 2009 ) and in a contrived play-group procedure ( Schwartz et al., 1993 ). Over time, the effort required to manage the increased arousal and negative affect associated with peer victimization 15 may eventually diminish individuals' coping resources and therefore their ability to understand and adaptively manage their emotions, leaving them more vulnerable to adverse outcomes ( McLaughlin et al., 2009 ).

Several studies have provided empirical support for emotion dysregulation as a mediator of the association between peer victimization and adverse outcomes among adolescents. In one of the first longitudinal demonstrations of mediation, McLaughlin and colleagues (2009) , using data from a large, prospective study of adolescents (ages 11-14), showed that peer victimization at baseline predicted increases in emotion dysregulation four months later, controlling for initial levels of emotion dysregulation. In turn, emotion dysregulation predicted subsequent psychological distress (depressive and anxious symptoms), thereby mediating the prospective relationship between peer victimization (relational and reputational forms) and internalizing symptoms ( McLaughlin et al., 2009 ). Subsequent research from this same sample of adolescents showed that emotion dysregulation also mediated the prospective relationship between peer victimization and subsequent aggressive behavior ( Herts et al., 2012 ).

There is also emerging evidence that emotion regulation mediates relationships between bullying and adverse outcomes. In one example of this work, Cosma et al. (2012) examined associations between bullying and several emotion regulation strategies, including rumination, catastrophizing, and other-blaming, in a sample of adolescents. Although bullying was predictive for each of these emotion regulation strategies, only one (catastrophizing) mediated the relationship between being a target of bullying and subsequent emotional problems. Thus, while more research is needed, existing evidence suggests that both social-cognitive and emotion regulation processes may be important targets for preventive interventions among youths exposed to peer victimization and bullying.

Genetic Predisposition to Mental Health Outcomes and Bullying

Longitudinal research suggests that being the victim or perpetrator of bullying does not lead to the same pathological or nonpathological outcomes in every person ( McDougall and Vaillancourt, 2015 ). There are many factors that contribute to how a person responds to the experience of being victimized, with very strong links already established with life experiences, as reviewed above. Most studies examining heterogeneity in outcomes associated with bullying have focused on environmental characteristics, such as individual, family, and school-level features to explain why some individuals fare better or worse when involved with bullying ( Vaillancourt et al., in press ). For example, the moderating role of the family has been examined with results indicating that bullied children and youth with better home environments tend to fare better than those living with more complicated families ( Flouri and Buchanan, 2003 ; also see Chapter 3 of this report). Far fewer studies have examined the role of potential genetic influences as mediators between life experiences such as bullying and mental health outcomes. Identifying potential genetic influences is critical for improving understanding of the rich behavioral and epidemiological data already gathered. At the present time, evidence-based understanding of physiology and neuroscience is very limited, and insufficient data have been gathered to produce informed hypothesis testing.

There is a growing body of literature examining the relative role of genes' interaction with the environment in relation to experiences with trauma. However, there are fewer studies exploring potential relations between genes and being the target or perpetrator of bullying. At first glance these studies may appear to suggest that a person's involvement with bullying is predetermined based on his/her genetic profile. Yet, it is important to bear in mind that heritable factors are also associated with specific environments—meaning it is difficult to separate genetic effects from environmental effects. This is a phenomenon termed gene-environment correlations , abbreviated as rGE ( Brendgen, 2012 ; Plomin et al., 1977 ; Scarr and McCartney, 1983 ). For example, aggression, which is highly heritable ( Niv et al., 2013 ), can be linked to the selection of environments in different ways (for review, see Brendgen, 2012 ). Aggressive children may choose friends who are similar in their genetically influenced behavioral characteristic of being aggressive, and this type of selection influences the characteristics of their peer group ( Brendgen, 2012 , p. 420). This is an example of selective rGE. A child's genetically influenced characteristic to be aggressive can also produce a negative reaction from others, such as being disliked. This environmental variable of being rejected now “becomes correlated with the aggressive genotype” ( Brendgen, 2012 , p. 421). This is an example of evocative rGE. Another way that a person's genetic predisposition can be correlated with their environment is through a more passive process, called a passive rGE ( Brendgen, 2012 ). For example, aggressive parents may be more likely to live in high-crime neighborhoods, which influence the probability that their child will be associating with antisocial peers. These important rGE processes and confounds of interaction notwithstanding, it is worth mentioning that the research on the genetics of being a target or perpetrator of bullying is still in its infancy, and caution is needed when evaluating the results, as replication is much needed in this area. Before considering these studies, the committee first reviews the concept of how genetic differences influence behavior because it is important to clarify new concepts in this burgeoning area of science (see Box 4-3 ).

How Do Genes Influence Behavior?

With this backdrop in mind, the committee focused on twin studies of familial (family environment) versus genetic influence, gene by environment interaction, and a newer area of inquiry, epigenetics: the study of cellular and physiological phenotypic trait variations caused by external or environmental factors.

Twin Studies

Twin studies are routinely used to examine the relative influence of genetics and the environment on a particular phenomenon, such as being the target or perpetrator of bullying. In these studies, the causes of phenotypic variation (for example the variation in being a target or perpetrator of bullying) is separated into three components: (1) the additive genetic component or the heritable factor; (2) the shared environment component or the aspect of the environment twins share such as poor family functioning; and (3) the nonshared environment component or the aspect of the environment that is unique to each twin, such as the classroom if twins are in different classes.

Studies that decompose the unique effects of the environment and genetics on bullying behavior are best illustrated by two examples. Using data from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, a study of high-risk 16 British twins reared together and apart, Ball and colleagues (2008) examined children's involvement in bullying and the genetic versus environmental contributions associated with their involvement. The twins in this study were assessed at ages 7 and 10 on their experiences with bullying, using teacher and parent reports. Results indicated that 73 percent of the variation in being the target of bullying and 61 percent of the variation in bullying perpetration were accounted for by genetic factors. In another study of Canadian twins reared together and assessed at age 7, using teacher and peer reports to assess peer victimization and aggression, Brendgen and colleagues (2008) found that for girls, 60 percent of the variation in aggression was accounted for by genetic factors and for boys, the variation estimate was 66 percent. For peer victimization, the Canadian study found that genetics did not play a role in the prediction of being targeted by peers. In fact, almost all of the variance was accounted for by environmental factors—29 percent of the variance in peer victimization was from the shared environment and 71 percent from the nonshared environment. The authors concluded that “genetic modeling showed that peer victimization is an environmentally driven variable that is unrelated to children's genetic disposition” ( Brendgen et al., 2008 , p. 455).

These two studies address the role genetics might play in the expression of aggressive behavior but conflict on the heritability of being a target of bullying. Most studies examining the heritability of externalizing problems, which includes studies on perpetrating aggression and bullying, report high heritability estimates. In fact, a recent meta-analysis found that aggression and rule-breaking were highly influenced by genetics, estimating the heritability rate at 41 percent ( Niv et al., 2013 ). Moreover, studies have found that the heritability estimates tend to be higher for more serious forms of antisocial behavior. For example, the heritability of psychopathy in 7-year-old British twin children reared together and apart and studied in the Twins Early Development Study was reported to be 81 percent ( Viding et al., 2005 ). However, estimates of the heritability of peer victimization vary across studies, as illustrated by the above results from Ball and colleagues (2008) contrasted with those from Brendgen and colleagues (2008) , and even within studies ( Brendgen et al., 2008 , 2013 ).

Brendgen and colleagues have since revised their assessment about the role genetics play in the prediction of being the target of bullying. In a more recent study, following the same children highlighted in the 2008 paper ( Brendgen et al., 2008 ) across three assessment periods (kindergarten, grade 1, and grade 4), Boivin and colleagues (2013) reported that at each grade, among twins who were reared together and apart, genetic factors accounted for a notable percentage of the variance in children's difficulties with peers. Peer difficulties were assessed as a latent factor derived from self-, teacher-, and peer-reports of peer victimization 17 and peer rejection. Specifically, in kindergarten and grade 1, 73 percent of the variance was accounted by genetic factors and in grade 4, genetic factors account for 94 percent of the variance in peer rejection and victimization.

There are several reasons for discrepancies between and within studies of the genetic contribution to bullying behavior. One reason is related to how peer victimization is assessed. Parent-, teacher-, peer-, and self-reports of bullying victimization have been shown to vary considerably across reporters ( Ostrov and Kamper, 2015 ; Patton et al., 2015 ; Shakoor et al., 2011 ); thus, the method used to assess involvement with bullying may lead to different results. Another reason for the differences may be related to development. The influence of the environment is expected to change as children age. Young children are particularly sensitive to family influences, while the influence of peers tends to matter more during adolescence ( Harris, 1995 ). Moreover, the type of environment a person is exposed to (i.e., harsh or nurturing) interacts with genes to produce a brain that is tailored to deal with the particular demands of that environment.

Taken together, the genetic studies reviewed suggest that aggression, which characterizes the perpetrator role in bullying ( Vaillancourt et al., 2008 ), might have heritable components, but the findings on being the target of bullying or other aggressive behavior are mixed. Thus, the role of genetic influences on both perpetrating and being a target of bullying requires more empirical attention before conclusions can be drawn.

Gene-by-Environment Interactions

Researchers also question whether specific genotypic markers of vulnerability (e.g., candidate genes) influence developmental outcomes in the face of adversity (i.e., environment). Importantly, there is some indication that genetics influences the mental health issues related to bullying highlighted above, such as depression and heightened aggression. For example, in gene-environment studies, candidate genes have been examined as moderators of the exposure to a toxic stressor such as child maltreatment and health outcomes such as depression. When the body experiences repeated bouts of stress that fail to resolve quickly, the heightened state of vigilance and preparedness depletes it of resources and the stress hormone cortisol begins to produce adverse effects. Specifically, prolonged stress disrupts brain functions and results in compromised decision making, faulty cognitive assessment, compromised learning and memory, and a heightened sense of threat that alters behavior ( Lupien et al., 2005 ; McEwen, 2014 ). There is evidence that the impact of changes in cortisol (either too high or too low) on learning may contribute, in part, to bullied children's decline in academic performance ( Vaillancourt et al., 2011 ), overeating/metabolic disorder, or emotional dysregulation, but this research is relatively new and needs to be explicitly explored within the context of bullying ( McEwen, 2014 ).

A paradigmatic example of this type of study is one by Caspi and colleagues (2003) , in which the moderating role of a functional polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene 5-HTTLPR was examined in relation to exposure to maltreatment in childhood and depression in adulthood. Results indicated that depression rates were far greater among abused individuals if they had two copies of the short allele. 18 Among individuals with a long allele, depression rates were lower, suggesting that the long allele was protective, while the short allele was a risk factor for depression in the face of adversity. Although the exact role of this serotonin-related gene has been a subject of controversy, a meta-analysis concluded that overall, the results are consistent across studies ( Karg et al., 2011 ). Nevertheless, skepticism and controversy remain regarding studies of gene-environment interactions ( Dick et al., 2015 ; Duncan, 2013 ; Duncan and Keller, 2011 ; Duncan et al., 2014 ). This important debate notwithstanding, there is evidence that variations in genotype might moderate the relation between exposure to being bullied and health outcomes. For example, Sugden and colleagues (2010) found that bullied children who carried two short versions of the 5-HTTLPR gene were more likely to develop emotional problems than bullied children who carried the long allele. Importantly, this moderating effect was present even when pre-victimization emotional problems were accounted for statistically. In addition to this study, three other studies have demonstrated the moderating effect of the 5-HTTLPR gene in the bullying-health link ( Banny et al., 2013 ; Benjet et al., 2010 ; Iyer et al., 2013 ), with depression being worse for carriers of the short/short genotype (both alleles are the short version) than carriers of the short/long and long/long genotypes.

Although the evidence suggests that genotypes moderate the relation between being a target of bullying and poorer mental health functioning like depression, it is important to acknowledge that this relation is more complex. Indeed, some individuals may be particularly biologically sensitive to negative environmental influences such as being bullied, but this genetic vulnerability can also be linked to better outcomes in the context of a more supportive and enriched environment (see Vaillancourt et al., in press ). This phenomenon is termed differential susceptibility ( Belsky and Pluess, 2009 ; Boyce and Ellis, 2005 ). For example, in their study of 5 and 6-year old children, Obradovic and colleagues (2010) found that high stress reactivity as measured using respiratory sinus arrhythmia and salivary cortisol was linked to poorer socioemotional behavior in the context of being in an environment that was high in family adversity. In a context characterized by lower adversity, high stress-reactive children had more adaptive outcomes.

To the committee's knowledge, there are no studies that have examined bullying perpetration in relation to serotonin transporter polymorphisms, although there are studies that have examined this polymorphism in aggressive and non-aggressive children. For example, Beitchman et al. (2006) examined 5-HTTLPR in clinically referred children between the ages of 5 and 15 and found a positive association between the short/short genotype and aggression. In other studies, the short allele has been associated with problems with impulse control that includes the use of aggression ( Retz et al., 2004 ).

The moderating role of different candidate genes has also been examined in relation to exposure to childhood adversity and poorer developmental outcomes (see review by Vaillancourt et al., in press ). With respect to bullying, only a few studies have examined gene-environment interactions. In one study by Whelan and colleagues (2014) , harsh parenting was associated with increased peer victimization and perpetration, but this effect was not moderated by the Monoamine Oxidase A (MAOA) genotype. 19 In another longitudinal study, Kretschmer and colleagues (2013) found that carriers of the 4-repeat homozygous variant of the dopamine receptor D4 gene were more susceptible to the effects of peer victimization 20 on delinquency later in adolescence than noncarriers of this allele. Finally, in a large sample of post-institutionalized children from 25 countries, VanZomeren-Dohm and colleagues (2015) examined the moderating role of FKBP5 rs1360780 21 in the relation between peer victimization 22 and depression symptoms. In this study, gender was also found to be a moderator. Specifically, girls who had the minor genotype (TT or CT) were more depressed at higher levels of peer victimization, but less depressed at lower level of peer victimization than girls who had CC genotype. For boys, the CC genotype was associated with more symptoms of depression than girls with the same CC genotype who had been bullied.

It is clear that genetics influences how experiences contribute to mental and physical well-being, although the specifics of these gene-environment interactions are complex and not completely understood. Even though genes appear to modulate humans' response to being a target or a perpetrator of bullying behavior, it is still unclear what aspects of these experiences are interacting with genes and which genes are implicated to produce the variability in outcomes. Human genes and environment interact in a very complex manner: what biological events a particular gene influences can change at different stages of development. That gene therefore interacts with the environment in unique ways across the development timeline. These gene-environment interactions can be subtle and are under constant flux ( Lake and Chan, 2015 ). Knowing both the genes involved and the specific environment conditions is critically important to understanding these interactions; a simplistic view of either the genetic or environmental component, especially when considered in isolation from the behavioral literature, is unlikely to be productive.

Epigenetic Consequences

It is clear from the research reviewed here that there are a variety of pathways leading to adaptive and maladaptive endpoints and that these pathways can also vary within the “system” along with other conditions and attributes ( McDougall and Vaillancourt, 2015 , p. 300), including a person's genetic susceptibility. In this section, the committee focuses on studies examining how genetic susceptibility can make certain individuals more sensitive to negative environmental influences.

Although a person's DNA is fixed at conception (i.e., nonmalleable), environment can have a strong effect on how some genes are used at each of the stages of development. One way such changes in gene use and expression can occur is through an epigenetic effect, in which environmental events alter the portions of the genome that control when gene replication is turned on or off and what parts of a gene get transcribed ( McGowan et al., 2009 ; Roth, 2014 ). That is, while an individual's genetic information is critically important, the environment can help to increase or decrease how some genetic information is used by indirectly turning on or off some genes based on input received by somatic cells from the environment. Such epigenetic alterations have been empirically validated in several animal studies. For example, in one line of epigenetic studies, infant rat pups are raised with either low- or high-nurturing mothers or with mothers that treated the pups harshly. The researchers found that the type of maternal care received in infancy had a notable effect on the rats' subsequent ability to deal with stress ( McGowan et al., 2011 ; Roth and Sweatt, 2011 ; Weaver et al., 2004 ). The behavioral effects were correlated with changes in DNA methylation. 23 Epigenetic changes associated with gene-environment interactions is a new and exciting research area that provide a direct link between how our genes are read and is thought to enable us to pass our experiences to the next generations. It is helpful to think of genes as books in a library and epigenetics as placing a barrier in front of a book to decrease the chances it is read or providing easy access to the book. Thus far, research has found that certain epigenetic mechanisms are strongly correlated with different neurobehavioral developmental trajectories, including changes in vulnerability and resilience to psychopathology. How epigenetics relates to individual responses to being a target or perpetrator of bullying is not clear, but the research in related areas of behavior highlights an important emerging area for investigation.

Various epigenetic processes appear to interact with many changes in the brain produced by early life experiences, including not only the number and shape of brain cells but also how these cells connect to one another at synapses ( Hanson et al., 2015 ).

Regarding bullying, the committee identified only one study that has examined epigenetic changes. Specifically, Ouellet-Morin and colleagues (2013) found an increase in DNA methylation of the serotonin transporter gene for children who had been bullied by their peers but not in children who had not been bullied. These researchers also found that children with higher serotonin DNA methylation had a blunted cortisol response to stress, which they had previously shown changes as a consequence of poor treatment by peers ( Ouellet-Morin et al., 2011 ). That is, their 2011 study of twin children assessed at ages 5 and 10 found that being bullied was correlated with a change in how the body responds to stress. Bullied children displayed a blunted cortisol response to a psychosocial stress test. Because the design of the study involved an examination of identical twins who were discordant with respect to their experiences of being bullied (one twin was bullied while the other one was not), Ouellet-Morin and colleagues (2011) concluded that the effect could not be attributed to “variations in either genetic makeup, family environment, or other concomitant factors, nor could they be attributed to the twins' perceptions of the degree of stress experienced during the task” ( Vaillancourt et al., 2013a , p. 243).

In summary, it is important to note that there is no gene for being a perpetrator or a target of bullying behavior. Based on current knowledge of the genetics of complex social behavior, such as bullying, the genetic component of individual response is likely to involve multiple genes that interact with the environment in a complex manner. The current understanding of genetics and complex behaviors is that genes do not cause a behavior; gene-by-environment studies do not use the word “environment” the same way it is used in everyday language or even in traditional social psychology (as in Chapter 3 ). Rather, it is a construct used in a model to estimate how much variability exists in a given environment. This means that the same gene placed in different environments would yield very different percentages for gene-environment interactions. It is unclear how this information would inform our understanding of bullying.

Telomere Erosion Consequences

Epigenetic research has found that negative life experiences can alter the expression of a gene, which in turn, can confer a risk for poor outcomes. Research also suggests that the experience of being bullied is associated with telomere erosion. The end of each chromatid has been found to shorten as people age; this telomere “tail” also erodes as a function of engaging in unhealthy behavior such as smoking or being obese. Telomere erosion is also associated with certain illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease ( Blackburn and Epel, 2012 ; Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 2011 ; Vaillancourt et al., 2013a ). Given these associations, scientists are now examining telomere erosion as a biomarker of stress exposure ( Epel et al., 2004 ), including the stress of being bullied by peers.

A recent longitudinal study by Shalev and colleagues (2013) examined telomere erosion in relation to children's exposure to violence, 24 a significant early-life stressor that is known to have long-term consequences for health. They found that exposure to violence, including being a target of bullying, was associated with telomere erosion for children assessed at age 5 and again at age 10. The sample for this study included 236 children recruited from the Environmental-Risk Longitudinal Twin Study ( Moffitt, 2002 ), 42 percent of whom had one or more exposures to violence. The study found that cumulative exposure to violence 25 is positively associated with accelerated telomere erosion in children, from baseline to follow-up, with potential impact for life-long health ( Shalev et al., 2013 ).

In this chapter, the committee reviewed and critically analyzed the available research on the physical health, psychosocial, and academic achievement consequences for children and youth who are bullied, for those who bully, for those who are both bullied and bullies, and for those who are bystanders to events of bullying. It also examined the potential mediating mechanisms of, and the genetic predisposition to, mental health outcomes associated with childhood and youth experiences of bullying behavior. Most studies are cross-sectional and thus provide only associations suggestive of a possible causal effect. This problem is most acute for studies based on anonymous self-report, in which both the independent variable (experience of bullying in one or more roles) and dependent variables (such as emotional adjustment) are data collected at the same time from sources subject to various forms of bias.

The limited amount of data from longitudinal and experimental research designs limits the ability to draw conclusions with respect to causality. Additional longitudinal studies, for example, could help establish that the negative consequences attributed to bullying were not present before the bullying occurred. But even this does not prove a causal effect, since bullying and the associated impairments might be products of some third factor. Below, the committee summarizes what is known about associations and consequences and identifies key conclusions that can be drawn from this evidence base.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

Finding 4.1: Individuals who both bully and are also bullied by others experience a greater variety of both internalizing and externalizing symptoms than those who only bully or are only bullied. Finding 4.2: Individuals who bully others are likely to experience negative emotional, behavioral, and mental health outcomes, though most research has not distinguished perpetration of bullying from other forms of peer aggression. Finding 4.3: A large body of research indicates that individuals who have been bullied are at increased risk of subsequent mental, emotional, and behavioral problems, especially internalizing problems. Finding 4.4: Studies of bystander behavior in bullying have rarely examined the emotional and psychological impact of witnessing bullying. Finding 4.5: Children and youth who are bullied subsequently experience a range of somatic disturbances. Finding 4.6: Social-cognitive factors (e.g., self-blame) and unsuccessful emotion regulation (i.e., emotion dysregulation) mediate relationships between bullying and adverse outcomes. Finding 4.7: There is evidence that stressful events, such as might occur with experiences of being bullied, alter emotional brain circuits. This potential outcome is critically in need of further investigation. Finding 4.8: Genetics influences how experiences contribute to mental and physical well-being, although the nature of this relationship is complex and not completely understood. Finding 4.9: Emerging evidence suggests that repeated exposure to bullying may produce a neural signature that could underlie some of the behavioral outcomes associated with being bullied. Finding 4.10: There are limited data on the physical health consequence of bullying for those individuals who are involved in bullying as targets, perpetrators, as both targets and perpetrators, and as bystanders. Finding 4.11: Poly-victims (individuals who are targets of multiple types of aggression) are more likely to experience negative emotional, behavioral, and mental health outcomes than individuals targeted with only one form of aggression. Finding 4.12: The long-term consequences of being bullied extend into adulthood and the effects can be more severe than other forms of being maltreated as a child. Finding 4.13: Individuals who are involved in bullying (as perpetrators, targets, or both) in any capacity are significantly more likely to contemplate or attempt suicide, compared to children who are not involved in bullying. It is not known whether bystanders are at increased risk of suicidal ideation or suicide attempts. Finding 4.14: There is not enough evidence to date to conclude that being the target of bullying is a causal factor for multiple-homicide targeted school shootings, nor is there clear evidence on how experience as a target or perpetrator of bullying, or the mental health and behavior issues related to such experiences, contribute to school shootings.

Conclusions

Conclusion 4.1: Further research is needed to obtain more in-depth evidence on the physical health consequences of being the target of bullying including neural consequences. Conclusion 4.2: Additional research is needed to examine mediators of short- and long-term physical health outcomes of individuals who are bullied. Evidence is also needed regarding how these outcomes vary over time for different groups of children and youth, why individuals with similar experiences of being bullied might have different physical health outcomes, and how physical and emotional health outcomes intersect over time. Conclusion 4.3: Although the effects of being bullied on the brain are not yet fully understood, there are changes in the stress response systems and in the brain that are associated with increased risk for mental health problems, cognitive function, self-regulation, and other physical health problems. Conclusion 4.4: Bullying has significant short- and long-term internalizing and externalizing psychological consequences for the children who are involved in bullying behavior. Conclusion 4.5: The data are unclear on the role of bullying as one of or a precipitating cause of school shootings. Conclusion 4.6: Individuals who both bully others and are themselves bullied appear to be at greatest risk for poor psychosocial outcomes, compared to those who only bully or are only bullied and to those who are not bullied. Conclusion 4.7: While cross-sectional studies indicate that children who are bullied are at increased risk for poor academic achievement relative to those who are not bullied, the results from longitudinal studies are inconsistent and warrant more research. Conclusion 4.8: Existing evidence suggests that both social-cognitive and emotion regulation processes may mediate the relation between being bullied and adverse mental health outcomes. Conclusion 4.9: Although genes appear to modulate humans' response to being either a target or a perpetrator of bullying behavior, it is still unclear what aspects of these experiences are interacting with genes and which genes are implicated to produce the variability in outcomes. Examining the role of genes in bullying in the context of the environment is essential to providing meaningful information on the genetic component of individual differences in outcomes from being a target or a perpetrator of bullying behavior.

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Somatization is “a syndrome of physical symptoms that are distressing and may not be fully explained by a known medical condition after appropriate investigation. In addition, the symptoms may be caused or exacerbated by anxiety, depression, and interpersonal conflicts, and it is common for somatization, depression, and anxiety to all occur together” ( Greenberg, 2016 ).

Consolidation of memory is a biological process where the information one learns is stabilized within neural circuits and placed into long-term memory through a complex orchestration of molecular-level change and gene activation within neurons.

Peer victimization was measured with a 21-item revised version of the Social Experiences Questionnaire. The measure assesses overt and relational victimization and frequency of different acts of victimization ( Rudolph et al., 2016 ).

Reijntjes and colleagues (2010, p. 244) defined peer victimization as taking “various forms, including direct bullying behaviors (e.g., teasing, physical aggression) as well as more indirect manifestations such as group exclusion or malicious gossip.” Hawker and Boulton (2000, p. 441) defined peer victimization as “the experience among children of being a target of the aggressive behavior of other children, who are not siblings and not necessarily age-mates.”

Peer victimization was measured using peer, self-, and teacher reports, including peer nominations, a four-item self-report victimization scale, and a six-item teacher report victimization scale ( Kochel et al., 2012 ).

Stapinski et al. (2014) used a modified version of the Bullying and Friendship Interview Schedule to assess self-reported peer victimization. This measure includes items on overt victimization, such as threats, physical violence, and relational victimization.

Nonclinical psychotic symptoms are symptoms that do not meet the clinical definition for those psychotic disorders associated with such symptoms.

Peer victimization was measured using a modified six-item version of the Peer Victimization Scale, which asks students to select a statement that is most like them. Higher scores indicated higher levels of peer victimization ( Juvonen et al., 2011 ).

Peer victimization was measured using a 16-item peer nomination interview and a teacher-completed Social Behavior Rating Scale ( Schwartz et al., 2005 ).

Peer victimization is used here to include the broader category of bullying, peer victimization, and bullying behavior.

Psychotic experiences included hallucinations (visual and auditory), delusions (spied on, persecution, thoughts read, reference, control, grandiosity), and experiences of thought interference (broadcasting, insertion, and withdrawal), and any unspecified delusions.

This section is adapted from Rose (2015 , pp. 18-21).

A telomere is the “segment at the end of each chromosome arm which consists of a series of repeated DNA sequences that regulate chromosomal replication at each cell division.” See http://ghr .nlm.nih.gov/glossary=telomere [December 2015]. Telomeres are associated with “chromosomal stability” and the regulation of “cells' cellular replicative lifespan” (Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 2011, p. 16).

Peer victimization was measured by a teacher-reported seven-item measure with items measuring broader peer victimization (Hanish et al., 2004).

Peer victimization was measured using the Revised Peer Experiences Questionnaire, which assesses overt, relational, and reputational victimization by peers (McLaughlin et al., 2009).

High risk was defined as a mother who had her first child at age 20 or younger ( Moffitt, 2002 ).

Peer victimization was assessed through teacher, peer, and self-ratings. Children were asked to circle photographs of two classmates who get called names by other children and who are often pushed or hit by other children.

An allele is an alternate form of the same gene. Except for the XY chromosomes in males, human chromosomes are paired, so a cell's genome usually has two alleles for each gene.

The MAOA genotype has been called the “warrior” gene because of its association with aggression in studies using surveys and observations ( McDermott et al., 2009 ).

Peer victimization was measured using a teacher-report 3-item scale that assessed relational victimization in the classroom ( Kretschmer et al., 2013 ).

The FKBP5 rs1360780 gene is associated with a number of different psychological disorders ( Wilker et al., 2014 ).

VanZomeren-Dohm and colleagues (2015 measured peer victimization using the MacArthur Health and Behavior Questionnaire Parent-Form, version 2.1, in which parents reported on their children's experiences of overt peer victimization.

DNA methylation is a heritable epigenetic mark involving the covalent transfer of a methyl group to the C-5 position of the cytosine ring by DNA methyltransferases (a family of enzymes that act on DNA). Cytosine is one of the four bases that occur in varying sequences to form the “code” carried by strands of DNA ( Robertson, 2005 ).

Exposure to violence included domestic violence, bullying victimization, and physical abuse by an adult.

Cumulative violence exposure was measured by an index that summed each type of violence exposure.

Cite this Page Committee on the Biological and Psychosocial Effects of Peer Victimization: Lessons for Bullying Prevention; Board on Children, Youth, and Families; Committee on Law and Justice; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; Health and Medicine Division; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Rivara F, Le Menestrel S, editors. Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2016 Sep 14. 4, Consequences of Bullying Behavior.
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Bullying and harassment in the workplace.

Ståle Valvatne Einarsen Ståle Valvatne Einarsen University of Bergen
and Kari Wik Ågotnes Kari Wik Ågotnes University of Bergen
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.103
Published online: 20 September 2023

Workplace bullying and harassment is prevalent in contemporary workplaces with detrimental negative outcomes for targets as well as for bystanders and the organization itself. At any one time, some 3%–20% of the working population is targeted, suffering reduced motivation and productivity, severe mental and physical health problems, and a risk of exclusion from the organization and even working life altogether. Bullying and harassment is about the systematic and ongoing mistreatment of an employee by other organization members, mostly of a psychological and social nature and often involving a gradually escalating process that may end in severe victimization of those targeted if not properly managed and handled in its early phases. In early phases, by some denoted incivility, the behaviors involved are often subtle, indirect, and discrete, while in later phases they become ever more prevalent and direct—even involving threats and open verbal abuse. Bullying may involve work-related behaviors creating a difficult and even dangerous working situation for the target, personally demeaning behavior, acts of social exclusion and non-inclusion, and physically intimidation behaviors. Hence, bullying comes in many shades and forms, as well as at many levels of intensity. Although risk factors and antecedents of this complex problem may be found on many levels, factors in the immediate working environment and the design and management of work are particularly important. Furthermore, bullying is particularly prevalent in working environments characterized by a hostile working climate and in organizations where such behaviors are permitted or even rewarded.

mistreatment
victimization
social stressors
scapegoating
undermining

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Effects of Bullying

Bullying can affect everyone—those who are bullied, those who bully, and those who witness bullying. Bullying is linked to many negative outcomes including impacts on mental health, substance use, and suicide. It is important to talk to kids to determine whether bullying—or something else—is a concern.

Kids Who are Bullied

Kids who are bullied can experience negative physical, social, emotional, academic, and mental health issues. Kids who are bullied are more likely to experience:

Depression and anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness, changes in sleep and eating patterns, and loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy. These issues may persist into adulthood.
Health complaints
Decreased academic achievement—GPA and standardized test scores—and school participation. They are more likely to miss, skip, or drop out of school.

A very small number of bullied children might retaliate through extremely violent measures. In 12 of 15 school shooting cases in the 1990s, the shooters had a history of being bullied.

Kids Who Bully Others

Kids who bully others can also engage in violent and other risky behaviors into adulthood. Kids who bully are more likely to:

Abuse alcohol and other drugs in adolescence and as adults
Get into fights, vandalize property, and drop out of school
Engage in early sexual activity
Have criminal convictions and traffic citations as adults
Be abusive toward their romantic partners, spouses, or children as adults

Kids who witness bullying are more likely to:

Have increased use of tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs
Have increased mental health problems, including depression and anxiety
Miss or skip school

The Relationship between Bullying and Suicide

Media reports often link bullying with suicide. However, most youth who are bullied do not have thoughts of suicide or engage in suicidal behaviors.

Although kids who are bullied are at risk of suicide, bullying alone is not the cause. Many issues contribute to suicide risk, including depression, problems at home, and trauma history. Additionally, specific groups have an increased risk of suicide, including American Indian and Alaskan Native, Asian American, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. This risk can be increased further when these kids are not supported by parents, peers, and schools. Bullying can make an unsupportive situation worse.

Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Bullying — Bullying In Schools: Causes, Effects, And Solutions

Bullying in Schools: Causes, Effects, and Solutions

Categories: Bullying Youth Violence

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Published: Dec 16, 2021

Words: 1534 | Pages: 3 | 8 min read

Works Cited

Bradshaw, C. P., Sawyer, A. L., & O'Brennan, L. M. (2007). Bullying and peer victimization at school: Perceptual differences between students and school staff. School Psychology Review, 36(3), 361-382.
Espelage, D. L., & Swearer, S. M. (2003). Research on school bullying and victimization: What have we learned and where do we go from here?. School Psychology Review, 32(3), 365-383.
Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2018). Cyberbullying fact sheet: Identification, prevention, and response. Cyberbullying Research Center.
National Bullying Prevention Center. (2021). Resources. https://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/
National Center for Education Statistics. (2022). Student reports of bullying and cyberbullying: Results from the 2020–21 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey. US Department of Education.
Olweus, D. (2013). School bullying: Development and some important challenges. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 9, 751-780.
Patchin, J. W., & Hinduja, S. (2020). School climate 2.0: Preventing cyberbullying and sexting one classroom at a time. Corwin Press.
StopBullying.gov. (2021). Prevent bullying. https://www.stopbullying.gov/prevention/index.html
Thompson, F., Smith, P. K., & Rigby, K. (2022). Addressing bullying in schools: Theory and practice. Routledge.
Ttofi, M. M., & Farrington, D. P. (2011). Effectiveness of school-based programs to reduce bullying: A systematic and meta-analytic review. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 7(1), 27-56.

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Cyberbullying
How to Respond

Cyberbullying is the act of intentionally and consistently mistreating or harassing someone through the use of electronic devices or other forms of electronic communication (like social media platforms).

Because cyberbullying mainly affects children and adolescents, many brush it off as a part of growing up. However, cyberbullying can have dire mental and emotional consequences if left unaddressed.

This article discusses cyberbullying, its adverse effects, and what can be done about it.

FangXiaNuo / Getty Images

Cyberbullying Statistics and State Laws

The rise of digital communication methods has paved the way for a new type of bullying to form, one that takes place outside of the schoolyard. Cyberbullying follows kids home, making it much more difficult to ignore or cope.

Statistics

As many as 15% of young people between 12 and 18 have been cyberbullied at some point. However, over 25% of children between 13 and 15 were cyberbullied in one year alone.

About 6.2% of people admitted that they’ve engaged in cyberbullying at some point in the last year. The age at which a person is most likely to cyberbully one of their peers is 13.

Those subject to online bullying are twice as likely to self-harm or attempt suicide . The percentage is much higher in young people who identify as LGBTQ, at 56%.

Cyberbullying by Sex and Sexual Orientation

Cyberbullying statistics differ among various groups, including:

Girls and boys reported similar numbers when asked if they have been cyberbullied, at 23.7% and 21.9%, respectively.
LGBTQ adolescents report cyberbullying at higher rates, at 31.7%. Up to 56% of young people who identify as LGBTQ have experienced cyberbullying.
Transgender teens were the most likely to be cyberbullied, at a significantly high rate of 35.4%.

State Laws

The laws surrounding cyberbullying vary from state to state. However, all 50 states have developed and implemented specific policies or laws to protect children from being cyberbullied in and out of the classroom.

The laws were put into place so that students who are being cyberbullied at school can have access to support systems, and those who are being cyberbullied at home have a way to report the incidents.

Legal policies or programs developed to help stop cyberbullying include:

Bullying prevention programs
Cyberbullying education courses for teachers
Procedures designed to investigate instances of cyberbullying
Support systems for children who have been subject to cyberbullying

Are There Federal Laws Against Cyberbullying?

There are no federal laws or policies that protect people from cyberbullying. However, federal involvement may occur if the bullying overlaps with harassment. Federal law will get involved if the bullying concerns a person’s race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, disability, or religion.

Examples of Cyberbullying

There are several types of bullying that can occur online, and they all look different.

Harassment can include comments, text messages, or threatening emails designed to make the cyberbullied person feel scared, embarrassed, or ashamed of themselves.

Other forms of harassment include:

Using group chats as a way to gang up on one person
Making derogatory comments about a person based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, or other characteristics
Posting mean or untrue things on social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, as a way to publicly hurt the person experiencing the cyberbullying

Impersonation

A person may try to pretend to be the person they are cyberbullying to attempt to embarrass, shame, or hurt them publicly. Some examples of this include:

Hacking into someone’s online profile and changing any part of it, whether it be a photo or their "About Me" portion, to something that is either harmful or inappropriate
Catfishing, which is when a person creates a fake persona to trick someone into a relationship with them as a joke or for their own personal gain
Making a fake profile using the screen name of their target to post inappropriate or rude remarks on other people’s pages

Other Examples

Not all forms of cyberbullying are the same, and cyberbullies use other tactics to ensure that their target feels as bad as possible. Some tactics include:

Taking nude or otherwise degrading photos of a person without their consent
Sharing or posting nude pictures with a wide audience to embarrass the person they are cyberbullying
Sharing personal information about a person on a public website that could cause them to feel unsafe
Physically bullying someone in school and getting someone else to record it so that it can be watched and passed around later
Circulating rumors about a person

How to Know When a Joke Turns Into Cyberbullying

People may often try to downplay cyberbullying by saying it was just a joke. However, any incident that continues to make a person feel shame, hurt, or blatantly disrespected is not a joke and should be addressed. People who engage in cyberbullying tactics know that they’ve crossed these boundaries, from being playful to being harmful.

Effects and Consequences of Cyberbullying

Research shows many negative effects of cyberbullying, some of which can lead to severe mental health issues. Cyberbullied people are twice as likely to experience suicidal thoughts, actions, or behaviors and engage in self-harm as those who are not.

Other negative health consequences of cyberbullying are:

Stomach pain and digestive issues
Sleep disturbances
Difficulties with academics
Violent behaviors
High levels of stress
Inability to feel safe
Feelings of loneliness and isolation
Feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness

If You’ve Been Cyberbullied

Being on the receiving end of cyberbullying is hard to cope with. It can feel like you have nowhere to turn and no escape. However, some things can be done to help overcome cyberbullying experiences.

Advice for Preteens and Teenagers

The best thing you can do if you’re being cyberbullied is tell an adult you trust. It may be challenging to start the conversation because you may feel ashamed or embarrassed. However, if it is not addressed, it can get worse.

Other ways you can cope with cyberbullying include:

Walk away : Walking away online involves ignoring the bullies, stepping back from your computer or phone, and finding something you enjoy doing to distract yourself from the bullying.
Don’t retaliate : You may want to defend yourself at the time. But engaging with the bullies can make matters worse.
Keep evidence : Save all copies of the cyberbullying, whether it be posts, texts, or emails, and keep them if the bullying escalates and you need to report them.
Report : Social media sites take harassment seriously, and reporting them to site administrators may block the bully from using the site.
Block : You can block your bully from contacting you on social media platforms and through text messages.

In some cases, therapy may be a good option to help cope with the aftermath of cyberbullying.

Advice for Parents

As a parent, watching your child experience cyberbullying can be difficult. To help in the right ways, you can:

Offer support and comfort : Listening to your child explain what's happening can be helpful. If you've experienced bullying as a child, sharing that experience may provide some perspective on how it can be overcome and that the feelings don't last forever.
Make sure they know they are not at fault : Whatever the bully uses to target your child can make them feel like something is wrong with them. Offer praise to your child for speaking up and reassure them that it's not their fault.
Contact the school : Schools have policies to protect children from bullying, but to help, you have to inform school officials.
Keep records : Ask your child for all the records of the bullying and keep a copy for yourself. This evidence will be helpful to have if the bullying escalates and further action needs to be taken.
Try to get them help : In many cases, cyberbullying can lead to mental stress and sometimes mental health disorders. Getting your child a therapist gives them a safe place to work through their experience.

In the Workplace

Although cyberbullying more often affects children and adolescents, it can also happen to adults in the workplace. If you are dealing with cyberbullying at your workplace, you can:

Let your bully know how what they said affected you and that you expect it to stop.
Keep copies of any harassment that goes on in the workplace.
Report your cyberbully to your human resources (HR) department.
Report your cyberbully to law enforcement if you are being threatened.
Close off all personal communication pathways with your cyberbully.
Maintain a professional attitude at work regardless of what is being said or done.
Seek out support through friends, family, or professional help.

Effective Action Against Cyberbullying

If cyberbullying continues, actions will have to be taken to get it to stop, such as:

Talking to a school official : Talking to someone at school may be difficult, but once you do, you may be grateful that you have some support. Schools have policies to address cyberbullying.
Confide in parents or trusted friends : Discuss your experience with your parents or others you trust. Having support on your side will make you feel less alone.
Report it on social media : Social media sites have strict rules on the types of interactions and content sharing allowed. Report your aggressor to the site to get them banned and eliminate their ability to contact you.
Block the bully : Phones, computers, and social media platforms contain options to block correspondence from others. Use these blocking tools to help free yourself from cyberbullying.

Help Is Available

If you or someone you know are having suicidal thoughts, dial 988 to contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and connect with a trained counselor. To find mental health resources in your area, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 800-662-4357 for information.

Cyberbullying occurs over electronic communication methods like cell phones, computers, social media, and other online platforms. While anyone can be subject to cyberbullying, it is most likely to occur between the ages of 12 and 18.

Cyberbullying can be severe and lead to serious health issues, such as new or worsened mental health disorders, sleep issues, or thoughts of suicide or self-harm. There are laws to prevent cyberbullying, so it's essential to report it when it happens. Coping strategies include stepping away from electronics, blocking bullies, and getting.

Alhajji M, Bass S, Dai T. Cyberbullying, mental health, and violence in adolescents and associations with sex and race: data from the 2015 youth risk behavior survey . Glob Pediatr Health. 2019;6:2333794X19868887. doi:10.1177/2333794X19868887

Cyberbullying Research Center. Cyberbullying in 2021 by age, gender, sexual orientation, and race .

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: StopBullying.gov. Facts about bullying .

John A, Glendenning AC, Marchant A, et al. Self-harm, suicidal behaviours, and cyberbullying in children and young people: systematic review . J Med Internet Res . 2018;20(4):e129. doi:10.2196/jmir.9044

Cyberbullying Research Center. Bullying, cyberbullying, and LGBTQ students .

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: StopBullying.gov. Laws, policies, and regulations .

Wolke D, Lee K, Guy A. Cyberbullying: a storm in a teacup? . Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2017;26(8):899-908. doi:10.1007/s00787-017-0954-6

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: StopBullying.gov. Cyberbullying tactics .

Garett R, Lord LR, Young SD. Associations between social media and cyberbullying: a review of the literature . mHealth . 2016;2:46-46. doi:10.21037/mhealth.2016.12.01

Nemours Teens Health. Cyberbullying .

Nixon CL. Current perspectives: the impact of cyberbullying on adolescent health . Adolesc Health Med Ther. 2014;5:143-58. doi:10.2147/AHMT.S36456

Nemours Kids Health. Cyberbullying (for parents) .

By Angelica Bottaro Bottaro has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and an Advanced Diploma in Journalism. She is based in Canada.

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9 facts about bullying in the U.S.

Many U.S. children have experienced bullying, whether online or in person. This has prompted discussions about schools’ responsibility to curb student harassment , and some parents have turned to home-schooling or other measures to prevent bullying .

Here is a snapshot of what we know about U.S. kids’ experiences with bullying, taken from Pew Research Center surveys and federal data sources.

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand U.S. children’s experiences with bullying, both online and in person. Findings are based on surveys conducted by the Center, as well as data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Center for Education Statistics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Additional information about each survey and its methodology can be found in the links in the text of this analysis.

Bullying is among parents’ top concerns for their children, according to a fall 2022 Center survey of parents with children under 18 . About a third (35%) of U.S. parents with children younger than 18 say they are extremely or very worried that their children might be bullied at some point. Another 39% are somewhat worried about this.

Of the eight concerns asked about in the survey, only one ranked higher for parents than bullying: Four-in-ten parents are extremely or very worried about their children struggling with anxiety or depression.

A bar chart showing that bullying is among parents' top concerns for their children.

About half of U.S. teens (53%) say online harassment and online bullying are a major problem for people their age, according to a spring 2022 Center survey of teens ages 13 to 17 . Another 40% say it is a minor problem, and just 6% say it is not a problem.

Black and Hispanic teens, those from lower-income households and teen girls are more likely than those in other groups to view online harassment as a major problem.

Nearly half of U.S. teens have ever been cyberbullied, according the 2022 Center survey of teens . The survey asked teens whether they had ever experienced six types of cyberbullying. Overall, 46% say they have ever encountered at least one of these behaviors, while 28% have experienced multiple types.

A bar chart showing that nearly half of teens have ever experienced cyberbullying, with offensive name-calling being the type most commonly reported.

The most common type of online bullying for teens in this age group is being called an offensive name (32% have experienced this). Roughly one-in-five teens have had false rumors spread about them online (22%) or were sent explicit images they didn’t ask for (17%).

Teens also report they have experienced someone other than a parent constantly asking them where they are, what they’re doing or who they’re with (15%); being physically threatened (10%); or having explicit images of them shared without their consent (7%).

Older teen girls are especially likely to have experienced bullying online, the spring 2022 survey of teens shows. Some 54% of girls ages 15 to 17 have experienced at least one cyberbullying behavior asked about in the survey, compared with 44% of boys in the same age group and 41% of younger teens. In particular, older teen girls are more likely than the other groups to say they have been the target of false rumors and constant monitoring by someone other than a parent.

They are also more likely to think they have been harassed online because of their physical appearance: 21% of girls ages 15 to 17 say this, compared with about one-in-ten younger teen girls and teen boys.

A horizontal stacked bar chart showing that older teen girls stand out for experiencing multiple types of cyberbullying behaviors.

White, Black and Hispanic teens have all encountered online bullying at some point, but some of their experiences differ, the spring 2022 teens survey found. For instance, 21% of Black teens say they’ve been targeted online because of their race or ethnicity, compared with 11% of Hispanic teens and 4% of White teens.

Hispanic teens are the most likely to say they’ve been constantly asked where they are, what they’re doing or who they’re with by someone other than a parent. And White teens are more likely than Black teens to say they’ve been targeted by false rumors.

The sample size for Asian American teens was not large enough to analyze separately.

A bar chart showing that black teens more likely than those who are Hispanic or White to say they have been cyberbullied because of their race or ethnicity

During the 2019-2020 school year, around two-in-ten U.S. middle and high school students said they were bullied at school . That year, 22% of students ages 12 to 18 said this, with the largest shares saying the bullying occurred for one day only (32%) or for between three and 10 days (29%), according to the most recent available data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Certain groups of students were more likely to experience bullying at school. They include girls, middle schoolers (those in sixth, seventh or eighth grade), and students in rural areas.

The most common types of at-school bullying for all students ages 12 to 18 were being made the subject of rumors (15%) and being made fun of, called names or insulted (14%).

A bar chart showing that girls, middle schoolers and rural students are among the most likely to say they were bullied at school in 2019-2020.

The classroom was the most common location of bullying that occurred at school in 2019-2020, the BJS and NCES data shows. This was the case for 47% of students ages 12 to 18 who said they were bullied during that school year. Other frequently reported locations included hallways or stairwells (39%), the cafeteria (26%) and outside on school grounds (20%).

Fewer than half (46%) of middle and high schoolers who were bullied at school in 2019-2020 said they notified a teacher or another adult about it, according to the BJS and NCES data. Younger students were more likely to tell an adult at school. Around half or more of sixth, seventh and eighth graders said they did so, compared with 28% of 12th graders.

Students who reported more frequent bullying were also more likely to notify an adult at school. For instance, 60% of those who experienced bullying on more than 10 days during the school year told an adult, compared with 35% of those who experienced it on one day.

In 2021, high schoolers who are gay, lesbian or bisexual were about twice as likely as their heterosexual counterparts to say they’d been bullied, both at school and online, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . In the 12 months before the survey, 22% of high school students who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual – and 21% of those who identify as questioning or some other way – said they were bullied on school property. That compares with 10% of heterosexual students. The data does not include findings for transgender students.

A dot plot showing that high schoolers' experiences with bullying vary widely by sexual orientation.

The trend is similar when it comes to electronic bullying through text or social media: 27% of high school students who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual say they experienced this in the 12 months before the survey, as did 23% of those who identify as questioning or some other way. That compares with 11% of those who identify as heterosexual.

Online Harassment & Bullying

About 1 in 4 U.S. teachers say their school went into a gun-related lockdown in the last school year

About half of americans say public k-12 education is going in the wrong direction, what public k-12 teachers want americans to know about teaching, what’s it like to be a teacher in america today, race and lgbtq issues in k-12 schools, most popular.

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CAREER FEATURE
16 April 2024

Shrouded in secrecy: how science is harmed by the bullying and harassment rumour mill

Sarah Wild 0

Sarah Wild is a freelance journalist in Canterbury, UK.

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Illustration showing two scientists secretly passing a message with a read speech bubble on it.

Illustration: Fran Pulido

Misconduct aftermath

Misconduct allegations and findings can tear academic communities apart, and university disciplinary processes can amplify the harm. This two-part series explores the community fallout from harassment and bullying misconduct, beginning with the ripple effects of secrecy surrounding disciplinary processes. A second article will investigate how changes to institutional responses could benefit academia.

In August 2023, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) revised its code of conduct in response to complaints about the online hounding of astronomers who had collaborated with alleged or known harassers. “We knew of several astronomers around the world who were being ostracized from the astronomical community,” Debra Elmegreen, president of the Paris-based organization, told Nature at the time. Examples included researchers having papers rejected and being excluded from conferences.

The IAU’s revised guidance raised a fierce debate and ethical questions from its members about how to respond when a colleague is accused of harassment. Should researchers collaborate with a known or suspected harasser? And if allegations are found to be true, should offenders be cited as authors, invited to write opinion pieces or be employed at another institution?

There are currently no universally accepted guidelines to help the scientific community respond to such situations, leaving people and organizations to muddle through on their own, which can compound the harm.

How to stop ‘passing the harasser’: universities urged to join information-sharing scheme

Academia continues to struggle with bullying and harassment, despite social protest movements such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter drawing attention to it. According to Nature ’s 2021 global salary and job satisfaction survey , 27% of the 3,200 self-selecting respondents said they had observed or experienced discrimination, bullying or harassment in their present position, up from 21% in 2018. In Nature ’s 2022 graduate student survey , 18% said that they had personally experienced bullying, down from 21% in 2019. And in last year’s survey of postdoctoral researchers , 25% reported experiencing discrimination and harassment.

These behaviours create unsafe spaces in academia — particularly for women and minority groups — that reinforce inequalities 1 , drive researchers out of academia and can even put people at risk of physical harm 2 .

Because misconduct investigations are usually shrouded in secrecy, colleagues are often left to base their responses on rumours and hearsay, and unsure how to interact with an accused peer.

There are also several good reasons for closed investigations, including various competing interests around privacy and due process, many of them employment-law protections. Furthermore, survivors of harassment might not want their cases publicized, and those accused might want to defend their case without being tried in the court of public opinion first.

“Harassment is actually not an individual issue,” says Anna Bull, who is based in York, UK, and is the director of research at the 1752 Group, a UK organization that studies and advocates against sexual misconduct. “It is a community issue.”

Community strife

Faced with information vacuums, researchers and communities often take matters into their own hands by refusing to cite or collaborate with certain people (including both accusers and the accused in harassment and bullying allegations), not inviting them to conferences or into partnerships and excluding them from social events.

A 2022 study 3 found that article citations dropped — by more than 5% — if an author was publicly found to have committed sexual misconduct. Most people learn about allegations through their peer community, says co-author Marina Chugunova, a behavioural and experimental economist at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich, Germany. “We’re in a very social profession, and their network matters a lot.”

But this study looked only at known and published cases of misconduct.

Marina Chugunova, a behavioural and experimental economist at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich, Germany, has studied harassment’s downstream effects. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition

“Secrecy is the real problem,” says Sarah Batterman, an ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York. In 2021 Batterman joined other women who spoke out about sexual misconduct at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama City . Batterman, who remains a research associate at the STRI, still does not know whether the person who she filed a complaint against resigned or was fired. He remains active in her field of research.

“There are so many cases where people just get removed from positions and go on to another institution. It’s ‘pass the harasser’ and they just get to keep on behaving in their bad way because no one knows,” says Batterman.

Joshua Tewksbury, who took over as director at the STRI in 2021, says that “reports of harassment and investigations are treated with strict confidentiality to safeguard the privacy and integrity of those who come forward. Our primary focus is on supporting those affected while ensuring that investigations are fair and thorough.” The institute has since overhauled many of its practices for handling misconduct cases.

Some funders, including the US National Institutes of Health and the US National Science Foundation, require disclosure if grant recipients are disciplined for harassment. This enables such organizations to decline requests for a principal investigator to transfer a grant to another institution, or request that an institution find a replacement principal investigator. Some organizations will ask prospective employees whether they have been disciplined for harassment. However, institutions can often be oblivious of an employee’s past.

Also, an alleged harasser might resign before being dismissed, Tewksbury told a Nature podcast last year . “We are not in a position of sort of making a blanket public statement. In fact, legally, we can’t [get] around those issues, particularly if someone quits,” he said.

Shining a light

Disciplinary processes are considered a human resources (HR) matter, and most HR information is confidential, explains Georgina Calvert-Lee, a barrister and employment-law and equality specialist at Bellevue Law in London. People have “a right to private life and a family life”, she says, and this is explicitly protected by employment law.

Calvert-Lee says confidentiality regarding investigations protects the fairness of the process on both sides and the evidence that witnesses give. Disclosing investigation findings also comes with pitfalls, she adds. A sacked employee could sue for wrongful dismissal and a former employer could be liable for damaging the individual’s reputation if the circumstances of their departure were in the public domain. Ultimately, UK employment law does not require universities to disclose such findings and so most institutions would not risk being sued, Calvert-Lee says.

Employment-law and equality specialist Georgina Calvert-Lee says that confidentiality around investigations protects the fairness of misconduct investigations on both sides. Credit: Laura Shimili Mears

In 2016, Julie Libarkin, a geologist at Michigan State University in East Lansing, became frustrated at how harassment cases in US academia were being reported in the media. She describes high-profile misconduct allegations as “bursts of light that then fade away”, adding, “It means we don’t shine a light on the problem.” So, she trawled the Internet for US harassment cases, finding 30 in one day. She then set up the open-access Academic Sexual Misconduct Database , which has more than 1,200 entries and includes only publicly documented US cases.

There are no definitive statistics on either the prevalence or the extent of confirmed findings of harassment and discrimination in academia. But, in a 2018 report that summarized studies on sexual harassment in science , technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine estimated that more than half of female faculty members and staff have encountered or experienced sexual harassment. In a 2022 survey of more than 4,000 self-selected early- and mid-career researchers in Brazil , 47% of women had experienced harassment at work. Only a small fraction of reported incidents will result in formal disciplinary action. Of those that result in a finding of misconduct, an even smaller number will be made public.

Most institutions encourage informal resolution first, says Libarkin. Even if a person acknowledges their wrongdoing and agrees to undertake counselling or training, there is no paper trail, she says. “There’s no requirement that informal processes be reported anywhere.” These cases are not in her database.

For cases serious enough to find their way into the public spotlight and onto her list, “there’s rarely one victim and there’s rarely one incident”, she says. And yet US institutions are not required to keep information illustrating a pattern of behaviour, and often the information is not made public. Some universities, such as University College London (UCL), allow formal warnings to expire , so that a few years after a finding of misconduct, it is disregarded in future disciplinary action. Furthermore, many institutions ask complainants to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) as part of the disciplinary process, which prevents them from speaking out about what happened to them.

Freedom and safety in science

Astrophysicist Emma Chapman who is now at the University of Nottingham, UK, campaigned to ban NDAs following a two-year sexual harassment investigation by UCL, which was initiated by a complaint she filed during her time there as a PhD student. “I insisted on a confidentiality waiver,” she says, so that she could talk about some part of what happened. “You can’t fix the problem without exposing the problem.” The waiver requires her to give the institution two days’ notice ahead of talking about her case. In 2019, four years after Chapman’s initial complaint, UCL ended the use of confidentiality clauses or NDAs in settlement agreements with individuals who have complained of sexual misconduct.

After Chapman first went public about her experience, women reached out to her from all over the world to share theirs. “People were like, ‘I was raped, but I can’t say anything’ or ‘I was sexually assaulted, and I couldn’t say anything’, ‘I had to leave’, and ‘I’m under an NDA’,” she remembers. “And I realized that my case was deeply, deeply upsetting and shocking and — normal.”

Transparency is tricky

Total transparency about bullying and harassment cases can also be problematic, because many survivors might not want to disclose what happened to them, says Mark Dean, chief executive of Enmasse, a workplace behaviour-change consultancy company in Melbourne, Australia.

“There’s a reasonable chance that an unwanted announcement will further traumatize an individual,” he says, adding that respecting a survivor’s wishes is fundamental, and should inform any action. The complainant might want to put the matter behind them or they might fear other forms of career-damaging retaliation. Although many colleagues might guess who the complainant is after a suspected harasser leaves, this can be less traumatic than a public announcement, Dean says.

There are legal and employment restrictions that protect a person’s privacy. “Quite often we see organizations hamstrung by a range of conflicting interests as to whether they announce to the world that someone has been found guilty of misconduct,” Dean says. “They are subject to a whole range of employment privacy requirements.”

How hiring policies can help end workplace harassment

In the United Kingdom, disciplinary findings are seen as the personal data of the person accused, says Bull. That means it is illegal to share the findings, including the sanctions against the individual, with professional bodies and even prospective employers without the individual’s permission.

Calvert-Lee says that there are exceptions to the law when there is a legitimate purpose for sharing the information. If an employer asked for a reference, for example, a former institution could state that the person had been dismissed for misconduct. As things stand, neither party is required to request or provide such information and the new institution might not know to ask for such information, unprompted.

Bull’s 1752 Group is urging universities to try to remedy this problem by joining an initiative called the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme . The scheme, which is currently implemented by more than 250 organizations worldwide, aids the sharing of misconduct data between employers.

The lack of such open, transparent data makes researching harassment and discrimination difficult, too, says Chugunova. “From surveys, we know it is a huge problem, but the data is just not there.” Her 2022 research paper used data from the Academic Sexual Misconduct Database, and so was limited to cases in the United States. Social scientists have been saying for decades that there is no data, she says. “In 20 years, nothing has changed.”

Difficult discussions ahead

“Astronomy was at the front of the #MeToo movement in STEM by far, and now right at the front of the backlash as well,” says Chapman, pointing to the issue of harassment of alleged harassers and their allies, which the IAU was trying to address with its initial code-of-conduct revision. “And the things we see happening in astronomy are going to start happening in other fields as well in the next year or so. We have the opportunity right now to be the guinea pigs for academia and for higher education by having this very difficult discussion,” says Chapman.

In October last year, the IAU revised its code of conduct again to emphasize that “any form of physical or verbal abuse, bullying, or harassment of any individual, including complainants, their allies, alleged or sanctioned offenders, or those who work with or have worked with them, is not allowed”. Many members pointed out that this addition merely reinforced that harassment was prohibited — which had already been the organization’s policy.

Emma Chapman, an astrophysicist at the University of Nottingham, UK, campaigned to ban non-disclosure agreements as part of disciplinary processes. Credit: Emma Chapman

Chapman, who was critical of the initial changes, says that at least the IAU is trying to engage the problem. “There is no easy answer, but that doesn’t mean that we default to having no answer,” she says.

Ultimately, institutions and professional bodies need policies that are proactive rather than reactive, says Chapman. For example, conference organizers should have codes of conduct that lay out whether researchers who have been found guilty of misconduct can present at their event. “That way, you’re more legally protected. What’s not OK is, for example, to say ‘so-and-so can’t be part of this community’ and be vague about it,” she says.

Calvert-Lee says that excluding people from events is legally “tricky”. It could be defamatory to deny people access to events on the basis of rumours or allegations. But if an individual is found to have harassed or bullied others, an organizer could argue that excluding that individual reduces the risk to other attendees.

Professional societies such as the IAU have an important part to play. “What matters is the field — if you don’t have agreement across the field, it is kind of useless having an agreement in one university, or even one country,” says Chapman.

Calvert-Lee suggests that institutions should ask former employers to disclose the number of misconduct findings against a potential employee, or whether there were any outstanding investigations when the person left. In her experience, most UK universities supply “a very short two-liner, which says that a person worked here in this capacity from this date to that date, full stop” and would not voluntarily disclose extra information for fear of litigation.

Because academia is an extremely mobile community, Batterman suggests that academics should have a worldwide professional certification process. “Doctors and lawyers get professionally certified, and there’s an ethical review. If they violate their community norms, they can lose their licence. It should be the same in academia, whether it’s sexual harassment, sexual assault or bullying,” she says. But national efforts would be a valuable start, she adds, with various disciplines collectively deciding what actions would result in permanent expulsion from the academic community.

Dean advocates that organizations should take a hard line on sexual harassment and reclassify it as serious misconduct and thus a fireable first-time offence. He also urges institutions to report their anonymized statistics. They could regularly publish the number of findings on sexual misconduct and the number of exits under that policy, without naming survivors or their harassers, he says.

It’s a level of semi-transparency that could help communities to move forwards from harassment findings without causing the field or the individuals involved more harm. “Over time, people will see that the rumour mill starts, then there is a finding and then someone is no longer there,” Dean says. It also wouldn’t violate the competing employment and privacy laws.

“It is a workaround,” he admits. But importantly, it would allow people to see the consequences of such behaviour.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00986-w

Täuber, S., Loyens, K., Oertelt-Prigione, S. & Kubbe, I. eClinicalMedicine 49 , 101486 (2022).

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Graaff, K. Feminist Encounters : J. Crit. Stud. Culture Politics 5 , 12 (2021).

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Widmann, R., Rose, M. E. & Chugunova, M. Preprint at SSRN http://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4260210 (2022).

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Search UNICEF

Cyberbullying: what is it and how to stop it, what teens want to know about cyberbullying..

Available in:

We brought together UNICEF specialists, international cyberbullying and child protection experts, and teamed up with Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and X to answer some of the most common questions about online bullying and give advice on ways to deal with it.

What is cyberbullying?

Cyberbullying is bullying with the use of digital technologies. It can take place on social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms and mobile phones. It is repeated behaviour, aimed at scaring, angering or shaming those who are targeted. Examples include:

spreading lies about or posting embarrassing photos or videos of someone on social media
sending hurtful, abusive or threatening messages, images or videos via messaging platforms
impersonating someone and sending mean messages to others on their behalf or through fake accounts.

Face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying can often happen alongside each other. But cyberbullying leaves a digital footprint – a record that can prove useful and provide evidence to help stop the abuse.

If you are worried about your safety or something that has happened to you online, you can seek help by calling your national helpline . If your country does not have a helpline, please urgently speak to an adult you trust or seek professional support from trained and experienced carers.

The top questions on cyberbullying

Am I being bullied online? How do you tell the difference between a joke and bullying?
What are the effects of cyberbullying?
How can cyberbullying affect my mental health?
Who should I talk to if someone is bullying me online? Why is reporting important?
I’m experiencing cyberbullying, but I’m afraid to talk to my parents about it. How can I approach them?
How can I help my friends report a case of cyberbullying especially if they don’t want to do it?
How do we stop cyberbullying without giving up access to the internet?
How do I prevent my personal information from being used to manipulate or humiliate me on social media?
Is there a punishment for cyberbullying?
Technology companies don’t seem to care about online bullying and harassment. Are they being held responsible?
Are there any online anti-bullying tools for children or young people?

1. Am I being bullied online? How do you tell the difference between a joke and bullying?

Unicef: .

All friends joke around with each other, but sometimes it’s hard to tell if someone is just having fun or trying to hurt you, especially online. Sometimes they’ll laugh it off with a “just kidding,” or “don’t take it so seriously.”

But if you feel hurt or think others are laughing at you instead of with you, then the joke has gone too far. If it continues even after you’ve asked the person to stop and you are still feeling upset about it, then this could be bullying.

And when the bullying takes place online, it can result in unwanted attention from a wide range of people including strangers. Wherever it may happen, if you are not happy about it, you should not have to stand for it.

Call it what you will – if you feel bad and it doesn’t stop, then it’s worth getting help. Stopping cyberbullying is not just about calling out bullies, it’s also about recognizing that everyone deserves respect – online and in real life.

> Back to top

2. What are the effects of cyberbullying?

When bullying happens online it can feel as if you’re being attacked everywhere, even inside your own home. It can seem like there’s no escape. The effects can last a long time and affect a person in many ways:

Mentally – feeling upset, embarrassed, stupid, even afraid or angry
Emotionally – feeling ashamed or losing interest in the things you love
Physically – tired (loss of sleep), or experiencing symptoms like stomach aches and headaches

The feeling of being laughed at or harassed by others, can prevent people from speaking up or trying to deal with the problem. In extreme cases, cyberbullying can even lead to people taking their own lives.

Cyberbullying can affect us in many ways. But these can be overcome and people can regain their confidence and health.

Illustration - boy with face buried in hands

3. How can cyberbullying affect my mental health?

When you experience cyberbullying you might start to feel ashamed, nervous, anxious and insecure about what people say or think about you. This can lead to withdrawing from friends and family, negative thoughts and self-talk, feeling guilty about things you did or did not do, or feeling that you are being judged negatively. Feeling lonely, overwhelmed, frequent headaches, nausea or stomachaches are also common.

You can lose your motivation to do the things that you usually enjoy doing and feel isolated from the people you love and trust. This can perpetuate negative feelings and thoughts which can adversely affect your mental health and well-being.

Skipping school is another common effect of cyberbullying and can affect the mental health of young people who turn to substances like alcohol and drugs or violent behaviour to deal with their psychological and physical pain. Talking to a friend, family member or school counsellor you trust can be a first step to getting help.

The effects of cyberbullying on mental health can vary depending on the medium through which it happens. For example, bullying via text messaging or through pictures or videos on social media platforms has proven to be very harmful for adolescents.

Cyberbullying opens the door to 24-hour harassment and can be very damaging. That’s why we offer in-app mental health and well-being support through our feature “ Here For You .” This Snapchat portal provides resources on mental health, grief, bullying, harassment, anxiety, eating disorders, depression, stress, and suicidal thoughts. It was developed in partnership with leading international advocacy and mental health organizations to help Snapchatters contend with some very real issues. Still, our foundational piece of guidance for any well-being issue is to talk to someone: a friend, parent, caregiver, trusted adult – anyone whom you trust to listen.

At Snap, nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of our community. Reach out and tell us how we might be able to help.

Cyberbullying has the potential of having a negative impact on people's mental health. It's why it's so important that you reach out to someone you trust – whether it's a parent, teacher, friend or caregiver – and let them know what you're going through so that they can help you.

The well-being of our community matters hugely to us, and we recognise that cyberbullying can have an adverse impact on people's mental health. As well as taking strong action against content or behaviour that seeks to shame, bully or harass members of our community, we have partnered with experts to develop our well-being guide to help people learn more about improving their well-being, and keep TikTok a safe and inclusive home for our community.

4. Who should I talk to if someone is bullying me online? Why is reporting important?

If you think you’re being bullied, the first step is to seek help from someone you trust such as your parents, a close family member or another trusted adult.

In your school you can reach out to a counsellor, the sports coach or your favourite teacher – either online or in person.

And if you are not comfortable talking to someone you know, search for a helpline in your country to talk to a professional counsellor.

If the bullying is happening on a social platform, consider blocking the bully and formally reporting their behaviour on the platform itself. Social media companies are obligated to keep their users safe.

For bullying to stop, it needs to be identified and reporting it is key.

It can be helpful to collect evidence – text messages and screen shots of social media posts – to show what’s been going on.

For bullying to stop, it needs to be identified and reporting it is key. It can also help to show the bully that their behaviour is unacceptable.

If you are in immediate danger, then you should contact the police or emergency services in your country.

Facebook/Instagram

At Meta, we take bullying and harassment situations seriously. Bullying and harassment is a unique challenge and one of the most complex issues to address because context is critical. We work hard to enforce against this content while also equipping our community with tools to protect themselves in ways that work best for them.

If you're experiencing bullying online, we encourage you to talk to a parent, teacher or someone else you can trust – you have a right to be safe and supported.

We also make it easy to report bullying directly within Facebook or Instagram. You can send our team a report from a post, comment, story or direct message (DM). Your report is anonymous; the account you reported won’t see who reported them. We have a team who reviews these reports 24/7 around the world in 70+ languages and we will remove anything that violates our policies.

Meta’s Family Center offers resources, insights and expert guidance to help parents, guardians and trusted adults support their teen’s online experiences across our technologies. Additionally, the Meta Safety Center provides bullying prevention resources that can help teens seeking support for issues related to bullying like what to do if you or a friend is being bullied or if you've been called a bully. For educators , we have expert-backed tips on how to proactively handle and work to implement bullying prevention strategies

Bullying is something no one should have to experience, either in person or online.

Snapchat’s Community Guidelines clearly and explicitly prohibit bullying, intimidation, and harassment of any kind. We don’t want it on the platform; it’s not in keeping with why Snapchat was created and designed. Learn more here .

Letting us know when you experience or witness someone breaking our rules allows us to take action, which helps to protect you and other members of our community. In addition to reporting violating content or behaviour to Snapchat, speak with a friend, parent, caregiver, or other trusted adult. Our goal is for everyone to stay safe and have fun!

Everyone has the right to feel safe and to be treated with respect and dignity. Bullying and harassment are incompatible with the inclusive environment we aim to foster on TikTok.

If you ever feel someone is bullying you or otherwise being inappropriate, reach out to someone you trust - for example, a parent, a teacher or a caregiver – who can provide support.

We deploy both technology and thousands of safety professionals to help keep bullying off TikTok. We also encourage our community members to make use of the easy in-app reporting tools to alert us if they or someone they know has experienced bullying. You can report videos, comments, accounts and direct messages so that we can take appropriate action and help keep you safe. Reports are always confidential.

You can find out more in our Bullying Prevention guide for teens, caregivers, and educators on how to identify and prevent bullying, and provide support.

Being the target of bullying online is not easy to deal with. If you are being cyberbullied, the most important thing to do is to ensure you are safe. It’s essential to have someone to talk to about what you are going through. This may be a teacher, another trusted adult, or a parent. Talk to your parents and friends about what to do if you or a friend are being cyberbullied.

We encourage people to report accounts to us that may break our rules . You can do this on our Help Center or through the in-post reporting mechanism by clicking on the “Report a post” option.

Last updated: January 2022.

5. I’m experiencing cyberbullying, but I’m afraid to talk to my parents about it. How can I approach them?

If you are experiencing cyberbullying, speaking to a trusted adult – someone you feel safe talking to – is one of the most important first steps you can take.

Talking to parents isn’t easy for everyone. But there are things you can do to help the conversation. Choose a time to talk when you know you have their full attention. Explain how serious the problem is for you. Remember, they might not be as familiar with technology as you are, so you might need to help them to understand what’s happening.

They might not have instant answers for you, but they are likely to want to help and together you can find a solution. Two heads are always better than one! If you are still unsure about what to do, consider reaching out to other trusted people . There are often more people who care about you and are willing to help than you might think!

6. How can I help my friends report a case of cyberbullying especially if they don’t want to do it?

Anyone can become a victim of cyberbullying. If you see this happening to someone you know, try to offer support.

It is important to listen to your friend. Why don’t they want to report being cyberbullied? How are they feeling? Let them know that they don’t have to formally report anything, but it’s crucial to talk to someone who might be able to help.

Anyone can become a victim of cyberbullying.

Remember, your friend may be feeling fragile. Be kind to them. Help them think through what they might say and to whom. Offer to go with them if they decide to report. Most importantly, remind them that you’re there for them and you want to help.

If your friend still does not want to report the incident, then support them in finding a trusted adult who can help them deal with the situation. Remember that in certain situations the consequences of cyberbullying can be life threatening.

Doing nothing can leave the person feeling that everyone is against them or that nobody cares. Your words can make a difference.

We know that it can be hard to report bullying, but everyone deserves to feel safe online. If your friend is experiencing cyberbullying, encourage them to talk to a parent, a teacher or an adult they trust.

Reporting content or accounts to Facebook or Instagram is anonymous and can help us better keep our platforms safe. Bullying and harassment are highly personal by nature, so in many instances, we need a person to report this behaviour to us before we can identify or remove it. You can report something you experience yourself, but it’s also just as easy to submit a report for one of your friends. You can find more information on how to report something on our How to Report Bullying section at the Meta Safety Center.

You and your friends may be reluctant to report to a technology platform for any number of reasons, but it’s important to know that reporting on Snapchat is confidential and easy. And remember: You can report Snaps (photos and videos), Chats (messages) and accounts – about your own experiences or on behalf of someone else.

In the more public places of Snapchat, like Stories and Spotlight, simply press and hold on the piece of content and a card with “Report Tile” (as one option) will appear in red. Click that link and our reporting menu will appear. Bullying and harassment are among the first categories in the reporting list. Just follow the prompts and provide as much information as you can about the incident. We appreciate you doing your part to help us protect the Snapchat community!

If you believe another member of the TikTok community is being bullied or harassed, there are ways you can provide support. For example, you can make a confidential report on TikTok so that we take appropriate action and help keep your friend safe.

If you know the person, consider checking in with them and encourage them to read our Bullying Prevention guide so they can find out more information about how to identify bullying behaviour and take action.

If your friends are experiencing cyberbullying, encourage them to talk to a parent, a teacher or an adult they trust.

If a friend of yours does not want to report their experience, you can submit a bystander report on their behalf. This can include reports of private information , non -consensual nudity or impersonation.

Being online gives me access to lots of information, but it also means I am open to abuse. How do we stop cyberbullying without giving up access to the Internet?

7. How do we stop cyberbullying without giving up access to the Internet?

Being online has so many benefits. However, like many things in life, it comes with risks that you need to protect against.

If you experience cyberbullying, you may want to delete certain apps or stay offline for a while to give yourself time to recover. But getting off the Internet is not a long-term solution. You did nothing wrong, so why should you be disadvantaged? It may even send the bullies the wrong signal — encouraging their unacceptable behaviour.

We need to be thoughtful about what we share or say that may hurt others.

We all want cyberbullying to stop, which is one of the reasons reporting cyberbullying is so important. But creating the Internet we want goes beyond calling out bullying. We need to be thoughtful about what we share or say that may hurt others. We need to be kind to one another online and in real life. It's up to all of us!

We’re continuously developing new technologies to encourage positive interactions and take action on harmful content, and launching new tools to help people have more control over their experience. Here are some tools you can use:

Comment warnings: When someone writes a caption or a comment that our AI detects as potentially offensive or intended to harass, we will show them an alert that asks them to pause and reflect on whether they would like to edit their language before it’s posted.
Comment and message controls: Comments with common offensive words, phrases or emojis, and abusive messages or messages from strangers can be automatically hidden or filtered out with the ‘ Hidden words ’ setting, which is defaulted on for all people. If you want an even more personalized experience, you can create a custom list of emojis, words or phrases you don’t want to see, and comments containing these terms won’t appear under your posts and messages will be sent to a filtered inbox. All Instagram accounts have the option to switch off DMs from people they don’t follow. Messenger also gives you the option to ignore a conversation and automatically move it out of your inbox, without having to block the sender.
Block and Mute: You can always block or mute an account that is bullying you, and that account will not be notified. When you block someone on Instagram, you’ll also have the option to block other accounts they may have or create, making it more difficult for them to interact with you.
Restrict: With ‘Restrict,’ you can protect your account from unwanted interactions in a quieter, or more subtle way. Once Restrict is enabled, comments on your posts from a person you have restricted will only be visible to that person. You can choose to view the comment by tapping “See Comment”; approve the comment so everyone can see it; delete it; or ignore it. You won’t receive any notifications for comments from a restricted account.
Limits: You can automatically hide comments and DM requests from people who don’t follow you, or who only recently followed you. If you’re going through an influx of unwanted comments or messages — or think you may be about to — you can turn on Limits and avoid it.

Our priority is to foster a welcoming and safe environment where people feel free to express themselves authentically. Our Community Guidelines make clear that we do not tolerate members of our community being shamed, bullied or harassed.

We use a combination of technology and moderation teams to help us identify and remove abusive content or behaviour from our platform.

We also provide our community with an extensive range of tools to help them better control their experience – whether it's control over exactly who can view and interact with your content or filtering tools to help you stay in control of comments. You can find out about them on our Safety Centre .

Since hundreds of millions of people share ideas on X every day, it’s no surprise that we don’t all agree with each other all the time. That’s one of the benefits of a public conversation in that we can all learn from respectful disagreements and discussions.

But sometimes, after you’ve listened to someone for a while, you may not want to hear them anymore. Their right to express themselves doesn’t mean you’re required to listen. If you see or receive a reply you don’t like, unfollow and end any communication with that account. If the behaviour continues, it is recommended that you block the account . If you continue receiving unwanted, targeted and continuous replies on X, consider reporting the behaviour to X here .

We are also working proactively to protect people using our service through a combination of human review and technology. Learn more about how to feel safer on X here .

8. How do I prevent my personal information from being used to manipulate or humiliate me on social media?

Think twice before posting or sharing anything on digital platforms – it may be online forever and could be used to harm you later. Don’t give out personal details such as your address, telephone number or the name of your school.

Learn about the privacy settings of your favourite social media apps. Here are some actions you can take on many of them:

You can decide who can see your profile, send you direct messages or comment on your posts by adjusting your account privacy settings.
You can report hurtful comments, messages, photos and videos and request they be removed.
Besides ‘unfriending’, you can completely block people to stop them from seeing your profile or contacting you.
You can also choose to have comments by certain people to appear only to them without completely blocking them.
You can delete posts on your profile or hide them from specific people.

On most of your favourite social media, people aren't notified when you block, restrict or report them.

9. Is there a punishment for cyberbullying?

Most schools take bullying seriously and will take action against it. If you are being cyberbullied by other students, report it to your school.

People who are victims of any form of violence, including bullying and cyberbullying, have a right to justice and to have the offender held accountable.

Laws against bullying, particularly on cyberbullying, are relatively new and still do not exist everywhere. This is why many countries rely on other relevant laws, such as ones against harassment, to punish cyberbullies.

In countries that have specific laws on cyberbullying, online behaviour that deliberately causes serious emotional distress is seen as criminal activity. In some of these countries, victims of cyberbullying can seek protection, prohibit communication from a specified person and restrict the use of electronic devices used by that person for cyberbullying, temporarily or permanently.

However, it is important to remember that punishment is not always the most effective way to change the behaviour of bullies. Sometimes, focusing on repairing the harm and mending the relationship can be better.

On Facebook, we have a set of Community Standards , and on Instagram, we have Community Guidelines . We take action when we are aware of content that violates these policies, like in the case of bullying or harassment, and we are constantly improving our detection tools so we can find this content faster.

Bullying and harassment can happen in many places and come in many different forms from making threats and releasing personally identifiable information to sending threatening messages and making unwanted malicious contact. We do not tolerate this kind of behavior because it prevents people from feeling safe and respected on our apps.

Making sure people don’t see hateful or harassing content in direct messages can be challenging, given they’re private conversations, but we are taking steps to take tougher action when we become aware of people breaking our rules. If someone continues to send violating messages, we will disable their account. We’ll also disable new accounts created to get around our messaging restrictions and will continue to disable accounts we find that are created purely to send harmful messages.

On Snapchat, reports of cyberbullying are reviewed by Snap’s dedicated Trust & Safety teams, which operate around the clock and around the globe. Individuals found to be involved in cyberbullying may be given a warning, their accounts might be suspended or their accounts could be shut down completely.

We recommend leaving any group chat where bullying or any unwelcome behaviour is taking place and please report the behaviour and/or the account to us.

Our Community Guidelines define a set of norms and common code of conduct for TikTok and they provide guidance on what is and is not allowed to make a welcoming space for everyone. We make it clear that we do not tolerate members of our community being shamed, bullied or harassed. We take action against any such content and accounts, including removal.

We strongly enforce our rules to ensure all people can participate in the public conversation freely and safely. These rules specifically cover a number of areas including topics such as:

Child sexual exploitation
Abuse/harassment
Hateful conduct
Suicide or self-harm
Sharing of sensitive media, including graphic violence and adult content

As part of these rules, we take a number of different enforcement actions when content is in violation. When we take enforcement actions, we may do so either on a specific piece of content (e.g., an individual post or Direct Message) or on an account.

You can find more on our enforcement actions here .

Internet companies don’t seem to care about online bullying and harassment. Are they being held responsible?

10. Technology companies don’t seem to care about online bullying and harassment. Are they being held responsible?

Technology companies are increasingly paying attention to the issue of online bullying.

Many of them are introducing ways to address it and better protect their users with new tools, guidance and ways to report online abuse.

But it is true that more is needed. Many young people experience cyberbullying every day. Some face extreme forms of online abuse. Some have taken their own lives as a result.

Technology companies have a responsibility to protect their users especially children and young people.

It is up to all of us to hold them accountable when they’re not living up to these responsibilities.

11. Are there any online anti-bullying tools for children or young people?

Each social platform offers different tools (see available ones below) that allow you to restrict who can comment on or view your posts or who can connect automatically as a friend, and to report cases of bullying. Many of them involve simple steps to block, mute or report cyberbullying. We encourage you to explore them.

Social media companies also provide educational tools and guidance for children, parents and teachers to learn about risks and ways to stay safe online.

Also, the first line of defense against cyberbullying could be you. Think about where cyberbullying happens in your community and ways you can help – by raising your voice, calling out bullies, reaching out to trusted adults or by creating awareness of the issue. Even a simple act of kindness can go a long way.

The first line of defense against cyberbullying could be you.

If you are worried about your safety or something that has happened to you online, urgently speak to an adult you trust. Many countries have a special helpline you can call for free and talk to someone anonymously. Visit United for Global Mental Health to find help in your country.

We have a number of anti-bullying tools across Facebook and Instagram:

You can block people, including any existing and new accounts they might create.
You can mute an account and that account will not be notified.
You can limit unwanted interactions for a period of time by automatically hiding comments and message requests from people who don’t follow you, or who only recently followed you.
You can use ‘ Restrict ’ to discreetly protect your account without that person being notified.
You can moderate comments on your own posts.
You can modify your settings so that only people you follow can send you a direct message.
We will notify someone when they’re about to post something that might cross the line, encouraging them to reconsider.
We automatically filter out comments and message requests that don’t go against our Community Guidelines but may be considered inappropriate or offensive. You can also create your own custom list of emojis, words or phrases that you don’t want to see.

For more tips and ideas, visit Instagram’s Safety page and Facebook’s Bullying Prevention Hub . We also offer resources, insights and expert guidance for parents and guardians on our Family Center .

We want teens and young adults to be aware of the blocking and removal functions on Snapchat. Clicking on the person’s avatar will bring up a three-dot menu in the upper right-hand corner. Opening that menu offers the option of “Manage Friendship,” which, in turn, offers the ability to Report, Block or Remove the person as a friend. Know that if you block someone, they will be told that their Snaps and Chats to you will be delivered once the relationship is restored.

It’s also a good idea to check privacy settings to ensure they continue to be set to the default setting of “Friends Only.” This way, only people you’ve added as Friends can send you Snaps and Chats.

We also recommend reviewing your Friends’ list from time to time to ensure it includes those people you still want to be friends with on Snapchat.

Alongside the work that our safety teams do to help keep bullying and harassment off our platform, we provide an extensive range of tools to help you control your TikTok experience. You can find these in full on our Safety Centre . Here are a few highlights:

You can restrict who comments on your videos to no one, just friends or everyone (for those aged under 16, the everyone setting is not available)
You can filter all comments or those with specific keywords that you choose. By default, spam and offensive comments are hidden from users when we detect them.
You can delete or report multiple comments at once, and you can block accounts that post bullying or other negative comments in bulk too, up to 100 at a time.
A comment prompt asks people to reconsider posting a comment that may be inappropriate or unkind, reminding them of our Community Guidelines and allowing them to edit their comments before sharing.

We want everybody to be safe on X. We continue to launch and improve tools for people to feel safer, be in control and manage their digital footprint. Here are some safety tools anyone on X can use:

Select who can reply to your posts – either everyone, only people you follow or only people you mention
Mute – removing an account's posts from your timeline without unfollowing or blocking that account
Block – restricting specific accounts from contacting you, seeing your posts, and following you
Report – filing a report about abusive behaviour
Safety mode – a feature that temporarily blocks accounts for using potentially harmful language or sending repetitive and uninvited replies or mentions.

With special thanks to: Meta, Snap, TikTok and X (formerly known as Twitter). Last updated: February 2024.

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Essay on Sexual Harassment

500 words essay on sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment refers to any form of unwelcome sexual behaviour which is offensive, humiliating and intimidating. Further, it is against the law to sexually harass anyone. Over the years, sexual harassment has taken a lot of time to be recognized as a real issue. Nonetheless, it is a start that can protect people from this harassment. The essay on sexual harassment will take you through the details.

Sexual Harassment and Its Impacts

Sexual harassment comes in many forms and not just a single one. It includes when someone tries to touch, grab or make other physical contacts with you without your consent. Further, it also includes passing comments which have a sexual meaning.

After that, it is also when someone asks you for sexual favours. Leering and staring continuously also counts as one. You are being sexually harassed when the perpetrator displays rude and offensive material so that others can see it.

Another form is making sexual gestures towards you and cracking sexual jokes or comments towards you. It is also not acceptable for someone to question you about your sexual life or insult you with sexual comments.

Further, making an obscene phone call or indecently exposing oneself also counts as sexual harassment. Sexual harassment can impact a person severely. It may stress out the victim and they may suffer from anxiety or depression.

Moreover, it can also cause them to withdraw from social situations. After that, the victim also starts to lose confidence and self-esteem. There may also be physical symptoms like headaches, sleep problems and being not able to concentrate or be productive.

What Can We Do

No one in this world deserves to go through sexual harassment, whether man or woman. We all have the right to live freely without being harassed, bullied or discriminated against. It is the reason why sexual harassment is illegal.

To begin with, the person may try talking to the offender and convey their message regarding their unwanted behaviour. Further, it is also essential to stay informed about this issue. Make sure to learn about the policies and procedures regarding sexual harassment in your workplace, school or university.

Further, try to document everything to help you remember the name of the offenders and the incidents. Similarly, make sure to save any evidence you get which will help with your complaint. For instance, keeping the text messages, emails, photos or more.

Most importantly, always try to get external information and advice from people who will help you if you decide to file a lawsuit. Likewise, never deal with it on your own and share it with someone you trust to lighten your load.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Sexual Harassment

To conclude, sexual harassment is a very real issue that went unnoticed for a long period of time, but not anymore. It is essential for all of us to take measures to prevent it from happening as it damages the life of the victim severely. Thus, make sure you help out those who are suffering from sexual harassment and make the perpetrator accountable.

FAQ of Essay on Sexual Harassment

Question 1: What are the effects of sexual harassment?

Answer 1: Sexual harassment has major effects on the victim like suffering from significant psychological effects which include anxiety, depression , headaches, sleep disorders, lowered self-esteem, sexual dysfunction and more.

Question 2: How do you tell if someone is sexually harassing you?

Answer 2: It is essential to notice the signs if you feel someone is sexually harassing you. The most important sign is if you feel uncomfortable and experience any unwanted physical contact. If your ‘no’ does not have an impact and you’re being subjected to sexual jokes, you are being sexually harassed.

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Biden Administration Releases Revised Title IX Rules

The new regulations extended legal protections to L.G.B.T.Q. students and rolled back several policies set under the Trump administration.

President Biden standing at a podium next to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

By Zach Montague and Erica L. Green

Reporting from Washington

The Biden administration issued new rules on Friday cementing protections for L.G.B.T.Q. students under federal law and reversing a number of Trump-era policies that dictated how schools should respond to cases of alleged sexual misconduct in K-12 schools and college campuses.

The new rules, which take effect on Aug. 1, effectively broadened the scope of Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding. They extend the law’s reach to prohibit discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and widen the range of sexual harassment complaints that schools will be responsible for investigating.

“These regulations make it crystal clear that everyone can access schools that are safe, welcoming and that respect their rights,” Miguel A. Cardona, the education secretary, said in a call with reporters.

The rules deliver on a key campaign promise for Mr. Biden, who declared he would put a “quick end” to the Trump-era Title IX rules and faced mounting pressure from Democrats and civil rights leaders to do so.

The release of the updated rules, after two delays, came as Mr. Biden is in the thick of his re-election bid and is trying to galvanize key electoral constituencies.

Through the new regulations, the administration moved to include students in its interpretation of Bostock v. Clayton County, the landmark 2020 Supreme Court case in which the court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects gay and transgender workers from workplace discrimination. The Trump administration held that transgender students were not protected under federal laws, including after the Bostock ruling .

In a statement, Betsy DeVos, who served as Mr. Trump’s education secretary, criticized what she called a “radical rewrite” of the law, asserting that it was an “endeavor born entirely of progressive politics, not sound policy.”

Ms. DeVos said the inclusion of transgender students in the law gutted decades of protections and opportunities for women. She added that the Biden administration also “seeks to U-turn to the bad old days where sexual misconduct was sent to campus kangaroo courts, not resolved in a way that actually sought justice.”

While the regulations released on Friday contained considerably stronger protections for L.G.B.T.Q. students, the administration steered clear of the lightning-rod issue of whether transgender students should be able to play on school sports teams corresponding to their gender identity.

The administration stressed that while, writ large, exclusion based on gender identity violated Title IX, the new regulations did not extend to single-sex living facilities or sports teams. The Education Department is pursuing a second rule dealing with sex-related eligibility for male and female sports teams. The rule-making process has drawn more than 150,000 comments.

Under the revisions announced on Friday, instances where transgender students are subjected to a “hostile environment” through bullying or harassment, or face unequal treatment and exclusion in programs or facilities based on their gender identity, could trigger an investigation by the department’s Office for Civil Rights.

Instances where students are repeatedly referred to by a name or pronoun other than one they have chosen could also be considered harassment on a case-by-case basis.

“This is a bold and important statement that transgender and nonbinary students belong, in their schools and in their communities,” said Olivia Hunt, the policy director for the National Center for Transgender Equality.

The regulations appeared certain to draw to legal challenges from conservative groups.

May Mailman, the director of the Independent Women’s Law Center, said in a statement that the group planned to sue the administration. She said it was clear that the statute barring discrimination on the basis of “sex” means “binary and biological.”

“The unlawful omnibus regulation reimagines Title IX to permit the invasion of women’s spaces and the reduction of women’s rights in the name of elevating protections for ‘gender identity,’ which is contrary to the text and purpose of Title IX,” she said.

The existing rules, which took effect under Mr. Trump in 2020, were the first time that sexual assault provisions were codified under Title IX. They bolstered due process rights of accused students, relieved schools of some legal liabilities and laid out rigid parameters for how schools should conduct impartial investigations.

They were a sharp departure from the Obama administration’s interpretation of the law, which came in the form of unenforceable guidance documents directing schools to ramp up investigations into sexual assault complaints under the threat of losing federal funding. Scores of students who had been accused of sexual assault went on to win court cases against their colleges for violating their due process rights under the guidelines.

The Biden administration’s rules struck a balance between the Obama and Trump administration’s goals. Taken together, the regulation largely provides more flexibility for how schools conduct investigations, which advocates and schools have long lobbied for.

Catherine E. Lhamon, the head of the department’s Office for Civil Rights who also held the job under President Barack Obama, called the new rules the “most comprehensive coverage under Title IX since the regulations were first promulgated in 1975.”

They replaced a narrower definition of sex-based harassment adopted under the Trump administration with one that would include a wider range of conduct. And they reversed a requirement that schools investigate only incidents alleged to have occurred on their campuses or in their programs.

Still, some key provisions in the Trump-era rules were preserved, including one allowing informal resolutions and another prohibiting penalties against students until after an investigation.

Among the most anticipated changes was the undoing of a provision that required in-person, or so-called live hearings, in which students accused of sexual misconduct, or their lawyers, could confront and question accusers in a courtroom-like setting.

The new rules allow in-person hearings, but do not mandate them. They also require a process through which a decision maker could assess a party or witness’s credibility, including posing questions from the opposing party.

“The new regulations put an end to unfair and traumatic grievance procedures that favor harassers,” Kel O’Hara, a senior attorney at Equal Rights Advocates. “No longer will student survivors be subjected to processes that prioritize the interests of their perpetrators over their own well being and safety.”

The new rules also allow room for schools to use a “preponderance of evidence” standard, a lower burden of proof than the DeVos-era rules encouraged, through which administrators need only to determine whether it was more likely than not that sexual misconduct had occurred.

The renewed push for that standard drew criticism from legal groups who said the rule stripped away hard-won protections against flawed findings.

“When you are dealing with accusations of really one of the most heinous crimes that a person can commit — sexual assault — it’s not enough to say, ‘50 percent and a feather,’ before you brand someone guilty of this repulsive crime,” said Will Creeley, the legal director of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

The changes concluded a three-year process in which the department received 240,000 public comments. The rules also strengthen protections for pregnant students, requiring accommodations such as a bigger desk or ensuring access to elevators and prohibiting exclusion from activities based on additional needs.

Title IX was designed to end discrimination based on sex in educational programs or activities at all institutions receiving federal financial assistance, beginning with sports programs and other spaces previously dominated by male students.

The effects of the original law have been pronounced. Far beyond the impact on school programs like sports teams, many educators credit Title IX with setting the stage for academic parity today. Female college students routinely outnumber male students on campus and have become more likely than men of the same age to graduate with a four-year degree.

But since its inception, Title IX has also become a powerful vehicle through which past administrations have sought to steer schools to respond to the dynamic and diverse nature of schools and universities.

While civil rights groups were disappointed that some ambiguity remains for the L.G.B.T.Q. students and their families, the new rules were widely praised for taking a stand at a time when education debates are reminiscent to the backlash after the Supreme Court ordered schools to integrate.

More than 20 states have passed laws that broadly prohibit anyone assigned male at birth from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams or participating in scholastic athletic programs, while 10 states have laws barring transgender people from using bathrooms based on their gender identity.

“Some adults are showing up and saying, ‘I’m going to make school harder for children,” said Liz King, senior program director of the education equity program at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “It’s an incredibly important rule, at an incredibly important moment.”

Schools will have to cram over the summer to implement the rules, which will require a retraining staff and overhauling procedures they implemented only four years ago.

Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, which represents more than 1,700 colleges and universities, said in a statement that while the group welcomed the changes in the new rule, the timeline “disregards the difficulties inherent in making these changes on our nation’s campuses in such a short period of time.”

“After years of constant churn in Title IX guidance and regulations,” Mr. Mitchell said, “we hope for the sake of students and institutions that there will be more stability and consistency in the requirements going forward.”

Zach Montague is based in Washington. He covers breaking news and developments around the district. More about Zach Montague

Erica L. Green is a White House correspondent, covering President Biden and his administration. More about Erica L. Green

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