Bullying can damage entire school environment: Study

Researchers have found that all forms of vitimisation – bullying, cyberbullying and harassment – can damage the entire school environment. The study, published in the Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, measured the impact of polyvictimisation – exposure to multiple forms of victimisation – on school climate at the middle- and high-school levels.

The results showed that bullying, cyberbullying and harassment were significantly associated with decreases in perceptions of school safety, connection, and equity. “For each form of victimisation, school climate measures go down precipitously, so if we only centre the conversation about kids who are being bullied that limits it to ‘that’s not my kid’,” said study author Bernice Garnett, Associate Professor at University of Vermont in the US.

“But if we change the conversation to bullying can actually damage the entire school climate, then that motivates and galvanises the overall will of the school community to do something about it,” Garnett added.

Overall, 43.1 per cent of students experienced at least one form of victimisation during the 2015-2016 schoolyear. Just over 32 per cent of students reported being bullied, 21 percent were victims of cyberbullying and 16.4 per cent experienced harassment – defined as “experiencing negative actions from one or more persons because of his or her skin, religion, where they are from (what country), sex, sexual identity or disability.”