'Cool' kids in middle school bully more, UCLA psychologists report
 |
| Jaana Juvonen |
Bullying,
whether it's physical aggression or spreading rumors, boosts the social status
and popularity of middle school students, according to a new UCLA psychology
study that has implications for programs aimed at combatting school bullying.
In addition, students already considered popular engage in these forms of bullying,
the researchers found. The psychologists studied 1,895 ethnically diverse
students from 99 classes at 11 Los Angeles middle schools. They conducted
surveys at three points: during the spring of seventh grade, the fall of eighth
grade and the spring of eighth grade. Each time, students were asked to name
the students who were considered the "coolest," the students who
"start fights or push other kids around" and the ones who
"spread nasty rumors about other kids."
Those
students who were named the coolest at one time were largely named the most
aggressive the next time, and those considered the most aggressive were
significantly more likely to be named the coolest the next time. The results
indicate that both physical aggression and spreading rumors are rewarded by
middle school peers.
"The
ones who are cool bully more, and the ones who bully more are seen as
cool," said Jaana Juvonen, a UCLA professor of psychology and lead author
of the study. "What was particularly interesting was that the form of aggression,
whether highly visible and clearly confrontational or not, did not matter.
Pushing or shoving and gossiping worked the same for boys and girls.
"The
impetus for the study was to figure out whether aggression promotes social
status, or whether those who are perceived as popular abuse their social power
and prestige by putting other kids down," she said. "We found it
works both ways for both 'male-typed' and 'female-typed' forms of
aggression."
The
research is published online in the prominent Journal of Youth and Adolescence
and will be appear in an upcoming print edition of the journal.
The
study implies that anti-bullying programs have to be sophisticated and subtle
to succeed.
"A
simple message, such as 'Bullying is not tolerated,' is not likely to be very
effective," Juvonen said, when bullying often increases social status and
respect.
Effective
anti-bullying programs need to focus on the bystanders, who play a critical
role and can either encourage or discourage bullying, said Juvonen, who has
conducted research on bullying since the mid-1990s and serves as a consultant
to schools on anti-bullying programs. Bystanders should be made aware of the
consequences of spreading rumors and encouraging aggression and the damage
bullying creates, she said.
Juvonen's
current research is federally supported by the National Science Foundation and
the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development.
Juvonen
and her colleagues reported in 2003 that bullies are popular and respected and
are considered the "cool" kids.
The
rumors middle school students spread often involve sexuality (saying a student
is gay or sexually promiscuous) and family insults, she said.
Like
middle school students, Juvonen noted, non-human primates also use aggression
to promote social rank (although gossiping is obviously limited to humans).
Co-authors
of the new study are former UCLA psychology graduate student Yueyan Wang and
UCLA psychology doctoral student Guadalupe Espinoza.
In
previous research, Juvonen and her colleagues have reported that nearly three
in four teenagers say they were bullied online at least once during a recent
12-month period, and only one in 10 reported such cyber-bullying to parents or
other adults; that nearly half of the sixth graders at two Los Angeles-area
public schools said they were bullied by classmates during a five-day period;
that middle school students who are bullied in school are likely to feel
depressed, lonely and miserable, which in turn makes them more vulnerable to
further bullying incidents; and that bullying is pervasive.
"Bullying
is a problem that large numbers of kids confront on a daily basis at school;
it's not just an issue for the few unfortunate ones," Juvonen has said.
"Students reported feeling humiliated, anxious or disliking school on days
when they reported incidents, which shows there is no such thing as 'harmless'
name-calling or an 'innocent' punch.'"
Juvonen
advises parents to talk with their children about bullying before it ever happens,
to pay attention to changes in their children's behavior and to take their
concerns seriously.
Students
who get bullied often have headaches, colds and other physical illnesses, as
well as psychological problems.
Source: University of California - Los Angeles
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