 The definition of bullying is physical or verbal aggression that is repeated over

a period and, in contrast to meanness, involves an imbalance of power.

 While hazing also involves aggression over a period, bullying excludes the
victim from a group while hazing is part of the initiation of the victim into a
group.
 Twenty-eight percent of young people from grades six through 12 have been
the victim of bullying.
 Teachers often underestimate how much bullying is occurring at their schools.
 Parents are aware their child is being bullied only about half the time.
 Contrary to popular belief, bullies who have never been bullied themselves
often have been found to have rather high self-esteem and to be social climbers.
 Bystanders of bullying tend to succumb to what they believe is peer pressure to
support bullying behavior and fear of becoming the victim.
 Bullying can have significantly negative outcomes, for both the bully and the
victim.
 There are a number of approaches that victims and bystanders of bullying, as
well as parents, school, and work personnel, can use to discourage bullying at
school or in the workplace.

What is bullying? How can someone

distinguish bullying from hazing or
meanness?
While state laws have little consistency in their definition of bullying, the accepted
definition by the U.S. Department of Education and by many mental
health professionals is unwanted physical or verbal aggression directed at a specific
person, repeated over a period, involves an imbalance of power, and acts to exclude
the victim from a group. It is further characterized by the bully repeatedly using
higher social status over the victim to exert power and to hurt the victim. When the
harassment, name calling, gossiping, outing, rumor spreading, threats, or other forms
of intimidation expand from being done in person or by phone to the use of emails,
chat rooms, blogs, or other social media over the Internet, it is referred to as cyber
bullying or online bullying. In contrast, hazing is part of initiation of the victim into a
group, and meanness does not involve an imbalance of power. Further, meanness
involves hurtful behaviors between people who are equals, in social standing and
otherwise.

People usually think of bullying as taking place between children at school. However,
it can also occur at work and include aggressive behaviors like verbal abuse,
sabotaging the victim's job or work relationship, or misusing authority. Adult bullies
who engage in these behaviors are males 60% of the time. While men who bully tend
to victimize both genders equally, women bullies target other women about 80% of
the time.

SLIDESHOW

Teen Drama: Handling Mean Girls, Cyber Bullying, and TextingSee

Slideshow

What are the different types of

bullying?
There are at least five types of bullying.

 Physical bullying can involve hitting, kicking, pinching, pushing, or otherwise

attacking others.
 Verbal bullying refers to the use of words to harm others with name-calling,
insults, making sexual or bigoted comments, harsh teasing, taunting,
mimicking, or verbal threats.
 Relational bullying focuses on excluding someone from a peer group, usually
through verbal threats, spreading rumors, and other forms of intimidation.
  Reactive bullying involves the bully responding to being a former victim by
picking on others.
 Bullying can also involve assault on a person's property, when the victim has
his or her personal property taken or damaged.

What are the different types of

hazing?
 Cursing or yelling at victims
 Compelling victims to eat disgusting things
 Beating, whipping, branding, tying up, or gagging victims
 Requiring victims to perform sexual acts
 Forced binge drinking

How common is bullying? How

common is hazing?
Some statistics on bullying suggest that 28% of students from grades six through 12
have a history of being the victim of bullying, while 30% of high school students
acknowledge having bullied other students. About 10%-14% of children have been the
victim of bullying for more than six months. Most victims of cyberbullying have also
been victims of school bullying.

Boys tend to engage in bullying more often than girls, especially at high school age
and beyond, and are more likely to engage in physical or verbal bullying, physically or
verbally, while girls more often engage in relational bullying.

Studies show that teachers often underestimate how much bullying is occurring at
their school since they only see about 4% of bullying incidents that occur. Further,
victims of bullying only report it to school adults one-third of the time, usually when
the bullying occurs repeatedly or has causes injury. Parents tend to be aware their
child is being bullied only about half the time.
More than 40% of workers in the United States experienced bullying in the workplace.
More than 90% of working women are estimated to believe they have been
undermined by another woman at some time in their careers. However, due to the
stereotype that women should be more nurturing, a woman may perceive normal
supervision from another woman as undermining.

Nearly half of high school students and more than half of college students who have
been part of a club, team, fraternity, sorority, or other organization have been hazed at
some time.

What makes a bully? Why do kids

bully? Why do adults bully?
Bullying is the result of the bully's need to get and keep control over someone else.
The aggression that is involved in bullying interferes with the empathy needed to
refrain from bullying others. There are two different types of aggression: proactive
aggression and reactive aggression. Proactive aggression is described as being
organized, emotionally detached, and driven by the desire for a reward. Reactive
aggression is defined as impulsive, in response to a perceived threat or precipitant, and
usually associated with intense emotion, especially anxiety or anger. Contrary to the
stereotype of the bully who is socially inept trying to make him or herself feel better,
bullies who have never been the victim of bullying have rather high self-esteem and
tend to be social climbers. Child and adult bullies have a tendency to have low
tolerance for frustration, trouble empathizing with others, and a tendency to view
innocuous behaviors by their victims as being provocative. They are more likely to
suffer from a mental health problem compared to non-bullies. Many non-victimized
bullies are thought of as bi-strategic controllers, using both prosocial actions (for
example, likeability and popularity) and negative actions (for example, intimidating or
coercing others) to engage in these hurtful behaviors toward others.

Bullies who have been the victim of bullying themselves (bully/victims) tend to be
more aggressive than bullies who have never been a victim of bullying. They tend to
be less popular, more often bullied by their siblings, to be otherwise abused or
neglected, and to come from families of low socioeconomic status.

Bystanders of bullying, those who witness it but are neither the primary bully nor the
victim, tend to succumb to what they believe is peer pressure to support bullying
behavior and fear of becoming the victim of the bully if they don't support the
behavior. Further, bystanders are at risk for engaging in bul