BULLYING AND ITS PARTICIPANTS: LITERATURE REVIEW

Bullying is defined as the aggressive behaviour of one student towards another when the victim is "repeatedly and over time" (Olweus, 1993) exposed to victimization. School bullying can be of different forms, both physical and mental. Boys are more exposed to physical abuse than girls to verbal victimization (Olweus, 1993; Sharp & Smith, 1994, p. 4). Bullying is reported to correlate with other negative habits like smoking and alcohol consumption (Nansel et al., 2001, p. 2097). Isolation and loneliness are also associated with this phenomenon (Nansel et al., 2001, p.2097). Reasons for being victimized vary from deviations in physical strengths and the style of dress from the norms (cited in Carrera et al., 2011, p. 482), which can affect the victimization of some children. Other characteristics of being victimized are physical unattractiveness, being overweight, disability, or learning difficulties (cited in Carrera et al., 2011, p. 482).  

One form of aggression coined in literature is relational, directed at damaging relations (Espelage & Swearer, 2003). Relational aggression happens when an individual does not go along with the bully, which results in exclusion from peers and isolation from others. Bullies are commonly accompanied by a group of several children who do not directly initiate the aggressiveness; however, they support the bully in their actions by being "passive bullies" or "followers" (Olweus, 1993, p.34). By their "passive" participation, they become the factors to "reinforce or mitigate their peers' aggression" (cited in Jenkins & Troop-Gordon, 2020, p.48). 

To analyse the heroes’ characters of the novel The Chocolate War and to see the association of their features to those of bully, victim, and bystander, several studies were investigated, and typical characteristics of bullying participants were identified. Bullies are characterised by a negative attitude toward school (Barboza et al., 2009, p. 103) and poor academic performance (Nansel et al., 2001, p.2097). They are also associated with alcohol and smoking (Nansel et al., 2001, p. 2097). They lack social skills (Graig, 1998; Nansel et al., 2001, p. 2098), and they aim to achieve social status among peers (Sijtsema et al., 2009, p.65), especially to establish dominance status with peers (Pellegrini & Bartini, 2000). 

The bully is characterised by their enjoyment of the process and satisfaction after being violent to their peers. They can also be aggressive towards adults (Olweus, 1993); as such, they may disrespect their parents and teachers. They tend to dominate among their peers as they have a solid need to subdue others (Olweus, 1993) and have little or no empathy towards someone’s grief or maltreatment as they cannot recognise victims’ emotions of being scared or sad. In contrast to victims, bullies have a “positive view” of themselves (Olweus, 1993) and have high self-esteem. They are generally more robust than their peers or victim, so it is difficult for a bully to “defend himself or herself” (Espelage & Swearer, 2003, p. 368). Having been probably exposed to negative attitudes in their families, these children have developed impulses that make them satisfied when “inflicting injury or suffering upon other individuals” (Olweus, 1993, p. 35). They not only have a negative attitude towards the environment but also feel enjoyment when causing a distraction to it.  

Typically, victims are more anxious and insecure than peers; moreover, they are sensitive and quiet and react by crying (Olweus, 1993). They are usually ashamed of their characteristics, suffer low self-esteem, and have a negative view of themselves (Olweus, 1993). These children do not have many friends at school and are even “lonely and abandoned” (Olweus, 1993, p. 32). Contrary to bullies, these children have a negative attitude towards violence and all types of violence (Olweus, 1993). Literature observes that these types of children are introverts, opposite to bullies’ characters, and have a negative view of themselves and their situation (cited in Felipe et al., 2011, p. 870). Bullied children prefer being alone in the school context or choose some other lonely, non-aggressive children as their friends (cited in Felipe et al., 2011, p. 870) due to their passiveness and mistrustfulness. It is essential to notice that bullied children commonly have overly protective mothers and might have overly critical fathers (Olweus, 1993), contributing to their victimisation.

 Bullying and being bullied are associated with poor relations with their peers when victims were found to have a weak ability to make friends (Nansel et al., 2001, p. 2098). Usually, those who are weaker and younger more frequently become victims of aggressiveness among peers, while physical strength is noted as the most significant deviation existing in the relationship between victim and bully (Olweus, 1993).

Bystanders play an important role in peer aggression as they may “deter the demoralising and damaging impacts of bullying” (Padgett & E. Notar, 2013, p. 33). They consist of the most significant number of people in the bullying action, and in most cases, because of their presence, aggressive action may happen. Both children and educators can become a part of bullying (cited in Padgett & E. Notar, 2013). They are those who may even stop it; however, only 10 % of bystanders intervene in the action (cited in Padgett & E. Notar, 2013). They create an audience for the action bullies need, allowing the latter to increase their self-esteem and status among peers.          

Bystanders’ contribution to victimisation is enormous as their silent watching may boost victimisation. Studies show that bystanders’ passive or active behaviour may significantly influence the development of aggressive action (cited in Padgett & E. Notar, 2013). According to Seigal (2008), bystanders have immense power to impact the prevention of victimisation; however, the majority prefer not to intervene. They have a high chance of reducing it by standing up, and they may use their relationship as a “weapon” and discourage bullying (Padgett & E. Notar, 2013). They find this position safe and prefer not to intervene for different reasons. Findings note four reasons why bystanders do not stand against bullying: fear of getting hurt, fear of becoming a new target for the bully, fear of making the situation worse, and simply not knowing what to do (Padgett & E. Notar, 2013).

 

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2. Carrera, M., DePalma, R., & Lameiras, M. (2011). Toward a More Comprehensive Understanding of Bullying in School Settings. Educational Psychology Review, 23(4), 479-499. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-011-9171-x

3. Espelage, D., & Swearer, S. (2003). Research on School Bullying and Victimization: What Have We Learned and Where Do We Go From Here?. School Psychology Review, 32(3), 365-383. https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2003.12086206

4. Felipe, M., García, S., Babarro, J., & Arias, R. (2011), “Social Characteristics in bullying Typology: Digging deeper into description of bully-victim”, Procedia - Social And Behavioural Sciences, 29, pp. 869-878. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.11.316

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6. Jenkins, L., & Troop-Gordon, W. (2020), “Bystanders in bullying: Introduction to the special issue”, Journal Of School Psychology, 81, pp. 47-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2020.07.002

7. Nansel, T., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R., Ruan, W., Simons-Morton, B., & Scheidt, P. (2001), “Bullying Behaviours Among US Youth”, JAMA, 285(16), p. 2094. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.285.16.2094

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9. Padgett, S., & E. Notar, C. (2013), “Bystanders are the Key to Stopping Bullying”, Universal Journal Of Educational Research, 1(2), pp. 33-41. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2013.010201

10. Pellegrini, A. D., & Bartini, M. (2000), “A Longitudinal Study of Bullying, Victimization, and Peer Affiliation during the Transition from Primary School to Middle School”, American Educational Research Journal, 37(3), pp. 699–725. https://doi.org/10.2307/1163486

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