When Push Comes to Shove

Two decades ago, three children killed themselves. The youngest was only 10 years old. All three had apparently been driven to despair--at least in part--by the persecution they’d endured at their schools.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, a whole country dwelt on a nasty reality: that children, be it through cruel intent or mindless insensitivity, can make the lives of other children wretched.

The country also acted. It launched an anti-bullying campaign, providing funds to the world’s foremost bullying expert to explore just how bad the problem was and how it might be improved. The government funded research to devise and test a bullying-prevention program. Today, the country is placing a proven anti-bullying program in all of its schools.

The country is Norway, but there’s a growing sentiment that the U.S. should also get serious about school bullying, treating it as a harmful blight rather than shrugging it off as an inevitable rite of passage through childhood.

Researchers have determined that regular victims of bullying are more likely to develop anxiety and depression, to withdraw, even to become more aggressive. They’re more likely to dislike, avoid and perform poorly in school. The National Education Assn. estimates that each day at least 160,000 students stay home from school out of fear of bullies.

Bullying also seems to cause harm in later life. A study tracking 900 Swedish boys found that by age 23, ex-victims had recovered in many ways: They no longer exhibited heightened stress and anxiety. But, compared with those who weren’t bullied, they were more likely to have low self-esteem or suffer from depression.

And while kids who are picked on may be more anxious and self-doubting to begin with, researchers say it’s pretty clear from the body of evidence--for both adults and kids--that bullying can cause or worsen such problems.

In their search for solutions, such researchers have amassed a surprising amount of knowledge about the nuts and bolts of bullying. They can tell you, as one Canadian study did, that a bully strikes every 7 1/2 minutes on the playground and that the average attack last 40 seconds; that teachers believe they intervene in 75% of bullying incidents--yet kids put that number at 20%; and that girl bullies and boy bullies tend to torment their victims in different yet equally painful ways.

The fact that bullying has been raised as a possible motivating factor in several school shootings, including the ones in Santee, Calif., and at Columbine High in Colorado, has heightened interest in the issue. But the Norwegian bullying expert who led that country’s research says the effort is warranted on even more important grounds.

“It is really a fundamental democratic or human right to be spared this kind of humiliating, degrading treatment, which makes life miserable for thousands and thousands of young people for no good reason,” says Dan Olweus, professor of psychology at Norway’s University of Bergen.

Anti-bullying programs, say Olweus and other experts, could make a big difference for kids who suffer regular harassment from their peers: pushing, hitting and physical threats; taunts, rumor-mongering and social exclusion. And a lot of bullying can be stopped, they say, if schools take broad, long-term action that focuses not just on bullies but on victims--and on those who stand on the sidelines without intervening.

Olweus’ anti-bullying program, for instance--designed as part of the effort in Norway--enlists children, teachers and parents in a multipronged effort to change attitudes and protect victims.

The results of the program can be impressive. In controlled studies in Norway, the program reduced bullying by 50% or more. It has since been shown to be effective in several other countries, including the United States.

In California, a recently proposed bill would require schools to have bullying-prevention measures in place. Another bill that would have provided some funding for such measures was vetoed by Gov. Gray Davis last year.

Former victims of bullying often live with scars. Dennis Deery, 33, a computer consultant in Wisconsin, recalls his school days as “a nightmare of harassment.” Born with a cleft palate and slightly twisted lip, Deery was verbally and physically roughed up by his classmates--enduring, among other things, the school’s tradition of “ripping,” which “basically consisted of a wedgy to the point of ripping your underwear,” he says.

To this day, he says, when the memories come back, “it takes tremendous effort to curtail the knee-jerk reaction of anger” at the powerlessness he felt.

A Question of Who Has Greater Power

Power lies at the very heart of why children bully. Bullying isn’t your equally matched scuffle in the schoolyard: One way or other, the bully has an edge over the victim. It may be physical strength, emotional resilience or social status. Or, when it’s two, three or more bullies against one, it’s largely a matter of being outnumbered.

Exploiting the situation is an all-too-human failing.

“It’s a temptation to anyone when they’re in a position of power to abuse that power,” says Peter Smith, professor of psychology at Goldsmiths College at the University of London in England, a country where schools have been required since 1999 to have anti-bullying policies. “If I reflect, I can think of one or two times when I took advantage of a situation. You probably could too.”

Adolescence in particular is a time when such inequalities in power are likely to be exploited. Vying for greater social status is a common behavioral trait of such social species as humans and chimps, say anthropologists, and adolescents are just starting to figure out where they stand in the social order.

But normally, “in a primate group, you’ve got roughly as many adults as immatures,” says Alexander Harcourt, professor of anthropology at UC Davis. “If a young animal tries to bully another young animal, there will be an adult who comes to the defense of the victim.”

That is not the case in the schoolyard, where hundreds of youngsters are corralled in playgrounds with few or no adults present.

Increased adult supervision, experts say, is a crucial part of successful bullying-prevention programs. Indeed, bullying is easy to miss even when it’s happening right under an adult’s nose--as a unique Toronto study amply illustrates.

For 600 hours, Canadian researchers Debra Pepler of York University in Toronto and Wendy Craig of Queen’s University in Kingston filmed children in school. Those known to be bullies, victims or neither wore remote microphones.

Bullying episodes, the researchers found--anything from mild taunting to repeated kicking and hitting--happened once every 7 1/2 minutes on the playground. For 85% of the time, other kids were watching--often encouraging the bully. Only 10% of the time did kids intervene; only 20% of the time did adults.

While the average episode lasted 40 seconds, on one notable occasion a group of kids hit and kicked a boy for 35 minutes. Adults investigated--but went away when the kids said they were only playing.

In fact, even when it’s clear to adults that bullying has taken place, “it’s typical, when there’s an incident, for kids to say, ‘Well, we didn’t mean it--it was just for fun,’ ” says Jaana Juvonen, a behavioral scientist at Rand Corp. in Santa Monica. “They fail to take the perspective of the target.”

Research psychologists have amassed many facts about bullying:

* Most children are not directly involved in bullying, according to questionnaires filled out by teachers and children. It’s estimated that in the United States, Britain and Canada, 70% to 80% are neither bully nor victim, with 8% to 10% of kids reporting that they have been regularly victimized and 8% to 15% admitting being bullies or being so identified by others.

* Girls can be physically violent. The Toronto study captured young girls beating their victims with Barbie dolls, for instance. But girls, especially as they enter adolescence, are more likely to use “social” or “relational” bullying, psychologists say--spreading rumors and destroying friendships.

* Bullying takes place in urban and suburban schools alike, in one-room schoolhouses and on campuses where hundreds roam the hallways.

* Although many bullies are emotionally troubled, they aren’t especially likely to suffer from low self-esteem. That is far more likely to be the lot of their victims, who tend to be more shy and anxious.

* Many bullies--while not exactly liked--often enjoy high status and popularity on campus. It is the victim, yet again, who’s more likely to end up being widely shunned by his or her peers.

* Stand-out factors like having red hair or wearing glasses don’t especially increase the likelihood that a child will become a bullying victim, says Olweus. But other researchers disagree. Smith has found, for instance, that 85% of children who stammer are bullied or seriously teased.

* Bullies, too, need help, researchers say. Without intervention, they’re more likely to grow up to commit acts of violence. Others can graduate to careers as workplace bullies, using their power to make other adults’ lives miserable.

Legislators Delve Into the Issue

What can be done to stop the torment?

Political mandates can help. Norway requires every school to have an anti-bullying policy--as do Sweden, England and Wales. So do some U.S. states.

In California, AB 79, a bill proposed by Assemblywoman Sally Havice (D-Cerritos), would require schools to include bullying-prevention and conflict-resolution programs as part of their school safety plans.

Last year, though, Gov. Davis vetoed AB 1390, also proposed by Havice, that would have created a $150,000 grant program for elementary schools to set up bullying prevention programs. In his veto message, Davis said school personnel “should be aware of what children are doing, including bullying, without the need for specialized programs, training and counseling.”

But researchers say well-devised intervention programs with training may be just what it takes to help stamp out the problem.

Olweus, for instance, uses a sophisticated program with many parts to it: a detailed questionnaire to assess the extent of the problem; better supervision at recess; conferences with parents; role-playing and other classroom activities; and measures aimed at all children, including bullies and victims--in the hope that bystanders, too, can help change the climate at the school.

Studies have shown that this type of intervention not only helps curb bullying but also reduces rates of truancy, vandalism, fighting and alcohol use. Students also report that they enjoy going to school more.

Recently, the program has been tested in a number of schools in South Carolina. Compared with similar schools that didn’t have the intervention, rates of reported bullying were reduced after one year--though not as markedly as in Olweus’ Scandinavian studies. The program is now being put into place in some schools in Massachusetts, Maine, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Other schools are also taking measures, often guided by special books and curricula.

At Seeds University Elementary School, a laboratory school at UCLA, for instance, verbal harassment triggers instant staff intervention and discussion about behavior and coping skills.

At Elizabeth Learning Center, a K-12 school in Cudahy, fourth- and fifth-grade students trained in the art of conflict resolution roam the schoolyard in orange vests, helping students resolve disputes. After five years, the program appears to have had a calming effect on the campus, says school counselor Gary Burbank. It is now being expanded to the middle grades.

But experts caution that most anti-bullying interventions have not been evaluated and that the efforts don’t always work. Despite attempts to combat bullying at Santana High School before the March 5 shootings--last year the school received a $123,000 grant from the U.S. Justice Department to study and combat the problem--students interviewed since have said bullying is still rife.

Schools, moreover, aren’t likely to get far if their anti-bullying efforts focus just on dealing with the bullies instead of enlisting the help of nonbullying students--or if they’re limited to occasional “let’s all be kind to each other” pep talks. Schools, experts add, are unlikely to succeed--and will create much injustice--if they implement Draconian zero-tolerance measures in which kids caught bullying are instantly transferred. There are too many children involved, and the difference between persistent bullying and sporadic taunting is frequently hard to discern.

“This is not something we can eradicate quickly,” says Juvonen. “We have to start early and make a long-term investment if we want to help guide children to become more socially responsible, empathetic citizens.”