Bullying in Scottish Secondary Schools. SCRE Spotlights 23.

Pursuant to a European teachers' seminar on bullying in school held in Stavangar, Norway in 1987, a comparative research project in Scotland identified variations in the incidence of bullying in Scottish secondary schools and investigated and described successful coping strategies. Bullying was defined as "long standing violence, mental or physical, conducted by an individual or a group against an individual who is not able to defend himself or herself in that actual situation." Questionnaires were distributed to 942 students from 10 secondary schools, ranging from the inner city to the agricultural periphery. The data showed that 50 percent of the students had been bullied at school at least once or twice; 44 percent admitted that they had bullied someone else; and 32 percent said they had never been involved, either as bully or victim. Other reported findings include a breakdown of the recent bullies and victims by age and sex; demographic and family characteristics of bullies; incidence of forms of bullying ranging from ostracism to violence or extortion; school location of bullying incidents; and the data on taboo against telling authority figures about bullying incidents. Three prerequisites for a successful anti-bullying policy are discussed: recognition by the school that the problem exits; openness in discussing it; and ownership, i.e., giving parents, teachers, and pupils a vested interest in making the anti-bullying policy succeed. Eight references are included. (TE)