Copyright Malvin Porter, Jr. 2010 - acumen - The University of ...

schools. In particular, surveys of children enrolled in the 3 rd through 8 th grades in 14
Massachusetts schools found that nearly half who had been frequently bullied reported that the
bullying had lasted six months or longer (Mullin-Rindler, 2003). Other studies found that some
groups of children are at greater risk for being bullied than other groups (Garrett, 2003; Harris,
2003). Specifically, 33 percent of mainstreamed children with special needs were targets of
bullying.
A nationwide study conducted in the United States found that approximately 24 percent
of middle school children surveyed reported bullying others at least once during a school term
(T. Nansel et al., 2001a). Similar studies by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(Administration, 2004b) found that between 15 and 25 percent of U.S. students are bullied with
some frequency and that 15-20 percent report that they bully others with some frequency
(Melton et al., 1998; T. Nansel et al., 2001b). While the overall incident of school violence has
declined during the past several years, the NEA (2003) data found an overall 5 percent increase
in incidents of bullying between 1999 and 2001 among U.S. children.
Bullying appears to be frequent and pervasive among young school-age children (Snyder
et al., 2003). One study found that aggressive bullying (e.g., physical aggression or verbal
harassment) was frequent (e.g., once every 3 to 6 minutes) among 4-year-old children who were
observed on the playground (Culp et al., 2003). Another study reported that between 80 and 90
percent of children on the playground were the victims of some form of peer aggression (Snyder
et al., 2003).
Bully Classifications
Research literature has defined four common classifications of children based on their
involvement in bullying: bullies, victims, bully-victims (e.g., children who both bully others and
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