Bullying Em Inglês
Bullying in American Schools: Prevalence and Impact
According to a survey funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), bullying is widespread in American schools. The study, which appears in the April 25, 2001, Journal of the American Medical Association, found that more than 16 percent of U.S. school children said they had been bullied by other students during the current term.
The NICHD researchers surveyed 15,686 students in grades six-through-ten, in public, parochial, and other private schools throughout the U.S. The nationally representative survey was part of the U.S. contribution to the World Health Organization’s Health Behavior in School Children survey, an international effort in which many countries surveyed school-age children on a broad spectrum of health-related behaviors.
Defining Bullying
For this study, researchers defined bullying as a type of behavior intended to harm or disturb the victim. This behavior occurs repeatedly over time and involves an imbalance of power, with the more powerful person or group attacking the less powerful one. Bullying may be physical, involving hitting or otherwise attacking the other person; verbal, involving name-calling or threats; or psychological, involving spreading rumors or excluding a person.
Prevalence of Bullying
The children were asked to complete a questionnaire during a class period that asked how often they either bullied other students, or were the target of bullying behavior. A total of 10.6 percent of the children replied that they had “sometimes” bullied other children, a response category defined as “moderate” bullying. An additional 8.8 percent said they had bullied others once a week or more, defined as “frequent “bullying. Similarly, 8.5 percent said they had been targets of moderate bullying, and 8.4 percent said they were bullied frequently.
Impact of Bullying
“Being bullied is not just an unpleasant rite of passage through childhood,” said Duane Alexander, M.D., director of the NICHD. “It’s a public health problem that merits attention. People who were bullied as children are more likely to suffer from depression and low self esteem, well into adulthood, and the bullies themselves are more likely to engage in criminal behavior later in life.”
Cyberbullying and Depression
Unlike traditional forms of bullying, youth who are the targets of cyber bullying at school are at greater risk for depression than are the youth who bully them. A survey conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health found that cyber victims reported higher depression scores than did cyber bullies or bully-victims. This finding is in contrast to earlier studies of traditional bullying, which found that the highest depression scores were reported by bully-victims.
Preventing Bullying
The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration advises parents to encourage children to tell them immediately if they are victims of cyberbullying or other troublesome online behaviors. The agency also lists a number of steps that parents can take to help prevent cyber bullying and how to respond to it, at stopbullying.gov/parents. The site also includes extensive information on preventing and dealing with traditional forms of bullying.
