How common is bullying?
Globally, one in three young people report being bullied frequently. In Australia, the numbers are very similar: 29–40% of young people say they are being bullied frequently (meaning every few weeks or more).1
Face-to-face bullying (60% of bullying) is more common than cyberbullying (8–22% of bullying).2 Cyberbullying appears to be getting more frequent, a trend that was noticed particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. But it’s more common for students to experience a combination of face-to-face and cyberbullying than it is to experience cyberbullying alone.3
Myths and misconceptions
To identify bullying, you also need to understand what it is not. Behaviours that might be upsetting or distressing are not always bullying. Bullying is not the same as having a conflict or disagreement with someone or disliking someone. Bullying is not a single incident or disagreement but a repeated pattern of targeted behaviour.
Bullying is not accidental. It is an aggressive behaviour with a deliberate intent to harm. It is carried out to enhance the student’s reputation and/or their sense of self or status at the expense of another student, who is powerless to stop it. It may be brushed off by some students as just ‘joking’ or ‘messing around’ but bullying is never a joke. It causes harm.
It doesn’t matter what form bullying takes, all types of bullying cause harm.
If students being bullied, students bullying others, bystanders and adults haven’t got a clear understanding of what bullying is, it stops them from recognising, reporting and addressing bullying effectively. The following addresses some important misunderstandings about bullying:
It is not something to ‘get over’ or ‘toughen up’ about. The physical, psychological, social and educational harms caused by bullying are well documented and can have profound immediate, medium and long-lasting negative effects on those involved.
Ignoring bullying won’t fix the behaviour. It is very important that bullying is identified, reported and responded to appropriately.
Bullying is an abuse of a (real or felt) power imbalance. A student might be bullied based on their perceived vulnerabilities or differences but these characteristics are never the cause of the bullying.
It negatively affects everyone involved: students who are bullied, bystanders and those who bully others.4
Bullying and human rights
The Australian Human Rights Commission states that bullying is an abuse of human rights. Its effects can change lives through immediate, medium- and long-term impacts on mental and physical health, academic achievement and life trajectories.5 Everyone has a right to feel safe and be treated fairly and respectfully. Bullying violates these rights.
- UNESCO (2019). Behind the numbers: Ending school violence and bullying. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000366483; Shin, H.H., Braithwaite, V., & Ahmed, E. (2016). Cyber-and face-to-face bullying: Who crosses over? Social Psychology of Education, 19(3), 537–567. doi.org/10.1007/s11218-016-9336-z; Fujikawa, S., Mundy, L.K., Canterford, L., Moreno-Betancur, M., & Patton, G.C. (2020). Bullying across late childhood and early adolescence: A prospective cohort of students assessed annually from grades 3 to 8. Academic Pediatrics, 21(2), 344–351. doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2020.10.011; Dorrian, J., Centofanti, S., Wicking, A., Wicking, P., & Lushington, K. (2018). Smartphones in the bedroom, sleep, communication, and mental health in Australian school students. Sleep, 41. doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsy061.254
- Dorrian, J., Centofanti, S., Wicking, A., Wicking, P., & Lushington, K. (2018). Smartphones in the bedroom, sleep, communication, and mental health in Australian school students. Sleep, 41. doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsy061.254; Shin, H.H., Braithwaite, V., & Ahmed, E. (2016). Cyber-and face-to-face bullying: Who crosses over? Social Psychology of Education, 19(3), 537–567. doi.org/10.1007/s11218-016-9336-z
- Jadambaa, A., Thomas, H.J., Scott, J.G., Graves, N., Brain, D., & Pacella, R. (2019). Prevalence of traditional bullying and cyberbullying among children and adolescents in Australia: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 53(9), 878–888. doi.org/10.1177/0004867419846393
- Australian Government. (2021). Australian Government response to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee report: Adequacy of existing offences in the Commonwealth Criminal Code and of state and territory criminal laws to capture cyberbullying.
- Guzman-Holst, C.T., & Bowes, L. (2021). Bullying and internalizing symptoms. In P.K. Smith & J. O’Higgins Norman (Eds.), The Wiley Blackwell handbook of bullying: A comprehensive and international review of research and intervention (pp. 562–579). John Wiley & Sons; Le, L.K., Chatterton, M.L., Rapee, R.M., Fitzpatrick, S., Bussey, K., Hudson, J., Hunt, C., Cross, D., Magnus, A., & Mihalopoulos, C. (2023). Burden and preference-based quality of life associated with bullying in children. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 32(1), 53–62. doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01807-5; Kochenderfer-Ladd, B., Ladd, G.W., & Thibault, S.A. (2021). School bullying and peer victimization: Its role in students’ academic achievement. In P.K. Smith & J. O’Higgins Norman (Eds.), The Wiley Blackwell handbook of bullying: A comprehensive and international review of research and intervention (pp. 619–638).