Types of bullying

The four types of bullying

Broadly, bullying can be split into four types:

Bullying can be a combination of some or all of these types of behaviour. For example, a student might be teased unkindly in class (verbal bullying), have their school bag stolen or hidden (physical), be excluded from friendship groups (social), and be sent mean posts online (cyberbullying). 

Obvious and hidden bullying 

Bullying behaviour can be both obvious and hidden. How visible bullying is affects our ability to identify when bullying happens and who is involved. 

Bullying you can see 

Obvious bullying involves actions that are easy to see. These actions can be physical, social, verbal or online. It is often known who is doing the obvious bullying, or it’s easy to find out. Obvious bullying can cause immediate physical, psychological and emotional harm (as well as a fear of future harm). 

Bullying you can’t see 

Hidden bullying involves behaviour that is intentionally hidden from others, which makes it hard to see for people who are not directly involved. It often takes the form of social, verbal or online bullying, though it can also be physical.

Hidden bullying most often causes psychological harm by damaging someone’s social reputation, peer relationships and self-esteem, but it can also cause physical harm. Because hidden bullying is secretive, the person doing the bullying may be anonymous or difficult to identify. If they are identified, they might deny they did it, or they might claim it was a ‘joke’ or that they were ‘just having a bit of fun’.

Hidden bullying can include: 

• hidden social bullying – for example, social exclusion, spreading rumours, damaging another person’s reputation or relationships, sharing demeaning jokes with a group, blackmailing, stealing friends, deliberately ignoring someone, telling secrets and gossiping
• hidden verbal bullying – for example, saying unkind or threatening things to someone without any witnesses
• hidden physical bullying – for example, stealing personal belongings from a bag, or repeated shoving, threatening gestures or looks when no-one else is looking
• hidden cyberbullying – for example, ‘liking’ hurtful posts about someone, creating and/or sharing images, spreading information or rumours online using anonymous social media accounts, intentionally leaving someone out of group chats, or responding to their posts by leaving seemingly innocent but subtly insulting emojis or GIFs such as a laughing face reaction to a serious post.¹

Because hidden bullying is secretive, it can create confusion and self-doubt in the student being bullied. This adds to the emotional and psychological impacts of the bullying.

Bullying that includes both seen and hidden behaviour

Bullying can also be obvious and hidden, which is why it’s important to understand both types.  For example, a student might be tripped in the hallways and called unkind names in front of their peers at school and online (obvious physical, verbal and online bullying), while also being subtly excluded from group activities and group chats (hidden social and online bullying).

This combination of obvious and hidden bullying can create a complex experience for a student who is being bullied. The immediate physical, social and emotional harm (and fear of future harm) from the obvious bullying is made worse by the confusion, self-doubt and psychological harm from hidden bullying. These emotional and psychological impacts can make it difficult to ask for help.

It doesn't matter what form bullying takes. All kinds of bullying cause harm.²