Perceptions of bullying victimization and perpetration among elementary school students

Introduction: Bullying incidents in elementary schools are linked to a range of behaviors where perpetrators often fail to recognize their hostility and victims feel defenseless. Understanding the roles of children as perpetrators or as victims may lend additional insight into the development of approaches that extinguish targeted behaviors while enhancing prosocial behaviors to enhance learning.

Methods: School counselors administered the Forms of Bullying Scale-Victim (FBS-V) and the Forms of Bullying Scale-Perpetrator (FBS-P) to children (n=279) in grades 3-5.

Results: The FBS-V and FBS-P demonstrated high internal consistency (α=0.90 and α=0.91). The most frequently reported bullying victimization experiences included: being left out of a group (66%), being called names (55%), and having secrets told (55%). Property damage (43%) and physical injury (31%) were less common (p≤0.001). The most frequently reported bullying acts perpetrated were name calling (22%) and leaving someone out of a group (21%).  Victimization scores (M=1.98, sd=0.96) were significantly higher than Perpetrator scores (M=1.20, sd=0.44) (p<0.001).  Perpetrator scores were higher among boys (M=1.27, sd=0.54) than among girls (M=1.13, sd=0.32)(p=0.01).  Neither FBS-V nor FBS-P differed between the three grade levels.  Victimization scores were significantly correlated with perpetrator scores (r_s=0.311, p<0.001).   

Conclusions:  The FBS, which identifies children who need support as victims and/or perpetrators, describes conflicts from the students’ perspective. Differences in perpetrator/victim scores may indicate that perpetrators targeted more than one victim, were victims themselves, or failed to recognize their behaviors. School personnel are encouraged to identify children’s roles and associated perspectives thereby extinguishing bullying patterns in the school environment.