Responding to Bullying

Children who are bullied are often told to `solve the problems themselves'; however, when bullying is repeated over time, it becomes increasingly difficult for victimized children to stop the torment because of their relative lack of power. We examine the ways in which children respond to bullying and their evaluations of the effectiveness of various strategies in reducing their bullying problems. One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two Canadian children and youth, ranging in age from 4- to 19-years-old (mean 12.6, SD 2.4) responded to a web-based questionnaire. Few respondents indicated that they were motivated by public education campaigns or information about bullying. Participants indicated they were motivated to do something to stop bullying by their own need to exert control and be assertive and by their emotional reactions to bullying. A significant group of youth responded that they did nothing to stop bullying. Finally, the longer the bullying had been ongoing, the less effective students perceived their own strategies. The results highlight the importance of adults supporting students. Similarly, it is important to provide children and youth with strategies that are effective, as they are most likely to implement strategies that are only going to increase the victimization over time.