TECHNICAL REPORT
A Survey of Bullying Behavior Among Maine Third Graders
David L. Silvernail
Director
A. Mavourneen Thompson
Zhaoxia Yang
Holly J.P. Kopp
Staff
University of Southern Maine
Gorham, Maine
Introduction
How often do primary grade children report being bullied by their classmates? The purpose of this study was to discover the answer to this question by surveying third graders attending Maine’s public schools. Even a cursory review of published research on bullying activities shows that bullying behavior is extensive in the United States public schools. In many studies both boys and girls of many grade levels report having been bullied, and the severity of bullying ranges from isolated incidents to chronic victimization, and causes and effects of bullying are varied. For instance, Hoover, Oliver, and Hazler (1992), in their study of 207 mid-western middle and high school students, found that 14% of their adolescent respondents reported that they had been severely victimized when bullying was defined as chronic victimization. Another study, by Perry, Kusel, and Perry (1988), found that 10% of American boys and girls, ages 9-12, were victims of extreme bullying. In 1996, Garrity and others found that, on the average, two to three students in every elementary classroom spent their day afraid of others, and consequently, avoided public places such as the cafeteria, restrooms, and hallways. Likewise, Shelly (1985) found that 80% of high school students and 90% of elementary and middle school students reported being bullied at school. Other studies show that bullying behavior causes serious distress to the victims and negatively affects learning (Hoover and Oliver, 1996). Furthermore, studies relate young peoples’ bullying to future commissions of violence. A recent study (Colvin, Tobin, Beard, Hagan, and Sprague, 1998) brought forth evidence that children who display bullying behaviors often grow up to become perpetrators of violence. Finally, the current research points out considerable evidence that bullying occurs in the public schools in varying degrees of seriousness and frequency.
Given these findings from national studies, the purpose of this study was to discover the frequency of bullying activities among third graders in Maine. In association with the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Project Against Bullying recently invited all Maine public schools that had third graders to participate in a survey. Usable data from 127 schools was analyzed. This reflected a total of 4496 surveys that were completed by Maine third graders in January, 1999. This response totaled 28% of all third graders in the state. A copy of the survey appears in Appendix A. The directors of the Maine Project Against Bullying requested the Center for Educational Policy, Applied Research, and Evaluation at the University of Southern Maine to analyze the survey results and to prepare this summary report. In the text that follows, some analyses are based on fewer than 4496 respondents, depending upon the number of third graders who responded to specific survey items.
The survey asked third graders several questions related to bullying. Bullying was described in the following ways: (1) teased in a mean way, (2) called hurtful names, (3) left out of things on purpose, (4) threatened, (5) hit or kicked or pushed. In order to describe how much bullying goes on, and to ascertain the effects of the bullying, survey results were analyzed according to their relevance to the following questions:
The results were also analyzed according to some or all of the following divisions: state totals, school sizes, gender, and county. School sizes were defined as very small (less than 100 students), small (101-250 students), medium (251-450 students), and large (more than 450 students). It is necessary to note that when results were obtained from divisions of county and school sizes, percentages sometimes reflected very small numbers of respondents. The reader should keep this important limitation in mind when reviewing the findings reported here.
Question 1: How do third grade children feel at their schools regarding happiness and safety?
Answer: Table 1 reports that a total of 1948 third grade students, or 44.3% of 4496 students, said they felt "very happy and good" about being at their school. Girls (47.5%) were more likely than boys (40.9%) to answer Avery happy and good. Those third grade children who answered "very sad and unhappy" to the question shown in Table 1 numbered 74, or 1.7% of all surveyed students. Boys were more likely than girls to report this. Forty-four boys, or 2.0% of all boys surveyed, felt "very sad and unhappy" while 28, or 1.3% of all girls surveyed, reported this.
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Categories |
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Very happy and good |
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Sometimes happy and good |
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So-so |
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Sometimes sad and unhappy |
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Very sad and unhappy |
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Although no relationship was found between school sizes and third graders’ feelings at school, the percentages of children who reported feeling "very happy and good" were slightly higher in larger schools, as shown in Table 2. Also, when combining results from two categories, the survey results showed that larger schools generally had a lower rate (5.8%) of third graders who were "sometimes sad and unhappy "or "very sad and unhappy" , while very small schools reported a rate of 8.1%. Small and medium-sized schools reported 6.5% each. (Note: The reader should consider that divisions by school sizes resulted in very small numbers of the respondents in certain question categories. For example, the numbers of "large" schools and "very small" schools are much smaller than the numbers of "medium" and "small" schools. Therefore, some results may reflect specific school buildings cultures rather than reflect typical very small or large schools.)
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(< 100) |
(101 - 250) |
(251 - 450) |
(> 450) |
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Very happy and good |
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Sometimes happy and good |
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So-so |
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Sometimes sad and unhappy |
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Very sad and unhappy |
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Tables 3 and 4 report children’s perceptions about their safety. Results reported in Table 3 reveal that most children felt very safe in places that are normally under much adult supervision. For instance, 76.2% reported feeling very safe in the classroom, 66.2% in the lunch room, and 60.0% in the hall. However, children reported feeling very unsafe in different places. Sixteen percent of all children felt very unsafe while walking to and from school, 9.5% while on the bus, 8.1% while at the bus stop, and 7.1% felt very unsafe while on the playground.
Table 3: This is How Safe I Feel in Each of These Places - State Totals
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Places |
Unsafe |
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In my classroom |
1.1 |
49 |
2.3 |
303 |
6.5 |
283 |
13.9 |
601 |
76.2 |
3307 |
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On the playground |
7.1 |
303 |
12.3 |
530 |
22.5 |
966 |
30.6 |
1317 |
27.5 |
1181 |
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In the lunchroom |
1.4 |
59 |
3.3 |
139 |
12.0 |
511 |
17.2 |
733 |
66.2 |
2823 |
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Walking to/from school |
16.0 |
329 |
10.3 |
212 |
15.7 |
322 |
18.0 |
370 |
39.8 |
816 |
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In the bathroom |
5.2 |
218 |
5.8 |
244 |
16.7 |
704 |
16.4 |
694 |
55.9 |
2362 |
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In the hall |
2.8 |
117 |
5.3 |
224 |
14.1 |
593 |
17.8 |
748 |
60.0 |
2519 |
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On the bus |
9.5 |
356 |
10.4 |
391 |
17.6 |
662 |
20.4 |
768 |
42.1 |
1584 |
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At the bus stop |
8.1 |
275 |
7.6 |
257 |
12.4 |
420 |
15.7 |
534 |
56.2 |
1907 |
There were no large differences reported by boys and girls in terms of how safe they felt in the classroom, the lunchroom and the bathroom, places usually supervised by adults. However, boys and girls did report some differences in places where there was normally less adult supervision or fewer adults. For instance, more boys (75.7%) than girls (70.2%) said they felt very safe or kind of safe in the halls; 57.4% of boys versus 51.4% of girls reported feeling very safe or kind of safe at the bus stop; 28.7% of boys versus 24.0% of girls reported feeling very safe or kind of safe while walking to or from school.
Table 4 shows relative degrees of children’s feelings of safety according to school sizes. From very small, to small, to medium and large-sized schools, the percentage of children who reported feeling very unsafe or kind of unsafe decreased from 15.6% to 12.3%, while the percentage of children who reported feeling very safe or kind of safe increased from 69.5% to 73.0%.
In general, third graders in Maine reported feeling safe and happy in their schools. While there were 74 (1.6%) children who said they were very unhappy and 49 (1.1%) who reported feeling very unsafe while in their classrooms, the overwhelming majority reported feeling happy and good and safe in their schools.
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(< 100) |
(101 - 250) |
(251 - 450) |
(> 450) |
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Very Safe |
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Kind of Safe |
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So-so |
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Kind of Unsafe |
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Very Unsafe |
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Question 2: How often are children bullied?
Answer: Survey results, as shown in Table 5, revealed that most children experience only milder forms of bullying, such as teasing, on a very infrequent basis. For instance, 55% said they were teased in a mean way one or two times a year or never, 56.7% said they were called hurtful names one or two times a year or never, and 61.4% said they were left out of things on purpose one or two times a year or never. The same holds true for more serious bullying acts, such as being threatened or being hit, kicked, or pushed. For instance, 72.9% said they were never or almost never (one or two times a year) threatened, 58.4% said they were never or almost never (one or two times a year) hit, kicked or pushed.
Thus, many third graders reported being bullied on an infrequent basis. However, almost one in four reported being frequently threatened, and one in three reported being frequently hit, kicked, or pushed by schoolmates. As shown in Table 5, a total of 1017 third graders, or 22.6%, reported that they were threatened either everyday, or one or two times a week or month. Boys (25.3% of boys) were more likely than girls (22.1% of girls) to be threatened everyday, or one or two times a week or month.
When reporting more extreme bullying, 37.5%, or 1684 third grade students said that they were hit, kicked, or pushed everyday, or one or two times a week or month, while 58.5% (2624) reported that this happened to them either once or twice a year or never. Boys (56.5%) were more likely than girls (65.4%) to be hit, kicked, or pushed on such an infrequent basis.
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(1,828) |
(1,800) |
(1,541) |
(1,017) |
(1,684) |
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(2,473) |
(2,547) |
(2,762) |
(3,276) |
(2,624) |
When the results were analyzed according to school sizes, findings showed that students from larger schools reported fewer occurrences of both milder bullying, (being teased, called names or left out on purpose) and more serious bullying (being threatened or hit, picked or pushed). For instance, Table 6, on the next page, shows that approximately one fourth of students from medium-sized schools (251-450) reported having been threatened on a frequent basis, while only about 18% of students from large schools reported this. Findings also showed that students from very small (<100) schools reported the highest frequency of being hit, kicked, or pushed, while students from large schools, again, reported the lowest frequency. Conversely, the most infrequent occurrences of being threatened were reported by students in large schools. Also, students in large schools reported the most infrequent occurrences of being hit, kicked or pushed.
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Size |
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Kicked/ Pushed |
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Kicked/ Pushed |
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Table 7, on the next page, shows the findings regarding bullying activities by counties. When county results were analyzed regarding how many children were hit, kicked, or pushed often (everyday, one to two times a week or month), the findings revealed a range of 30.6% in Sagadahoc County to 52.8% in Washington County. Knox reported the highest percentage of children who said they were hit, kicked, or pushed least often (either never, or only one or two times a year). The highest percentage of children who reported having been threatened everyday, or one or two times a week or month, were from Piscataquis County, while Franklin County reported the lowest percentage. Franklin also reported the highest percentage of children who said they were never threatened, or were only threatened one or two times a year. Once again, readers should exercise caution against making far-reaching comparisons among county findings. Without further statistical analysis, valid comparisons are limited because of small numbers of respondents in some categories. Therefore, generally speaking, results revealed that while children experienced bullying activities, most reported that they experienced only milder forms on a very infrequent basis.
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County |
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Kicked/ Pushed |
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Kicked/ Pushed |
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Question 3: How often do children bully others?
Answer: When children were asked how often they said mean things, teased, or called others names, more than three-fourths of children said they did this only one or two times a year or never. However, when asked how often they hit, kicked or pushed other children, 14.3% (645) of third grade respondents reported having done this at least one to two times a month, as shown in Table eight. Approximately eighty-three percent of children said they never did this, or only did it one or two times a year.
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Said mean things |
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Teased others |
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Called others names |
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Hit, kicked or pushed |
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Table 9 shows the percent of third graders from different school sizes who admitted to having "hit, kicked, or pushed other children" everyday, or one or two times a week or month. Third graders from schools with populations over 450 reported that they engaged in the least amount of frequent hitting, kicking, or pushing of other children, as shown in Table 9. Further analysis also showed that almost twice as many boys (19.7%) as girls (9.2%) reported that they frequently (everyday, one or two times a week or month) bully other children.
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School Size
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Question 4: Who does the bullying?
Answer: Of those children who answered "yes" to having been bullied, teased, or that someone had tried to hurt them, they most often said "a boy". As shown in Table 10, on the next page, approximately 50 percent of respondents reported that a boy had tried to hurt them. A category of "groups of girls" (5.9%) was least likely to be reported as one who tried to hurt them.
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Category |
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Bullied you |
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Said mean things |
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Teased you |
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Called you names |
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Tried to hurt you |
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From Table 11 we can see a difference between genders when children named the perpetrator(s). A higher percentage of boys (30.1%) than girls (18.9%) reported being bullied by a boy, while a higher percentage of girls (13.2%) than boys (4.8%) reported being bullied by a girl. Similarly, a higher percentage of boys (24.7%) than girls (15.0%) reported a boy tried to hurt them, while a higher percentage of girls (5.9%) than boys (3.2%) reported a girl tried to hurt them.
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Category |
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Who bullied you |
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Who tried to hurt you |
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Generally speaking, when children reported about those responsible for milder as well as more serious bullying acts, they most often said that "a boy" had committed the offense.
Table 12 shows that the bully was also most often reported as being from a higher grade. This was reported by 42.3% of all third graders surveyed who said they had been bullied.
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(by grade level) |
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Question 5: What do children do when they are bullied and what are the results of their actions?
Answer: When confronted with bullying, 91.3% of all third grade children do something. Table 13 shows that most children (44.6%) tell an adult, followed by 34.2% who tell the bully to stop, and 32.0% who get away from the bully. Others tell a friend (24.0%). Those who react by staying home from school total 3.4%, while 2.1% of third graders react by hurting others.
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When I’m bullied, I: |
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Tell the bully to stop |
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Get away from the bully |
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Hurt other kids |
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Stay home from school |
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Tell an adult |
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Tell a friend |
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Table 14,on the next page, shows the different reactions boys and girls had when they were bullied. Of those who reported they were bullied, most notable is the fact that boys, much more than girls, were most likely to hurt others after being bullied.
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As shown in Table 15, those students who had been bullied reported that when they told someone about the bullying, 48.2% said "it got better". However, it is noteworthy that another 37% of the third graders reported that nothing changed when they told someone or that the bullying got worse.
What Happened After You Told Someone? - State Totals
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It got better |
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It got worse |
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Nothing changed |
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I never told anyone |
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Summary
In light of the recent commissions of violence by school children and youth against their peers, the American people are becoming very introspective about the culture of children and the larger society. In this context, an understanding of hostile acts by elementary school children helps to reveal important and timely information about Maine children. While further research is necessary to construct profiles of the "typical" bully, and to develop an understanding of the culture within particular schools that work effectively to reduce bullying, the recent survey of 4496 of Maine’s third graders reveals the following important findings:
In conclusion, we see that Maine’s third graders, though mostly happy and feeling safe in schools, experience varying degrees of bullying behavior. Many experience some form of bullying on an infrequent basis, but approximately one-fourth or more report being threatened or hit, kicked, or pushed. It appears that Maine’s third graders, like many elementary children across the country, are victims of some type of bullying. In addition, approximately 14% of Maine’s young children report they bully others, and of those bullied who report instances to others, approximately one-third report that the situation does not improve. Thus, the data from this survey sample of Maine’s third graders suggest some actions are needed to insure that all young children in Maine’s schools feel safe and secure in our schools.
Hoover, J.H., & Oliver R., & Hazler R.J. (1992). Bullying: Perceptions of Adolescent Victims in the Midwestern USA. School Psychology International (SAGE, London, Newbury Park and New Delhi),Vol.13 (1992), 5-16.
Perry, D.G., & Kusel, S.J., & perry L.C. (1998). Victims of Peer Aggression. Developmental Psychology,24, 807-814.
Garrity, C., Jens, K., Porter, W., Sager, N. & short-Camilli, C. (1996). Bully-proofing your school. Longmont, Co: Sopris West.
Shelley, L.I. (1985). American Crime: an International Anomaly? Comparative Social Research, Volume 8, pages 81-95.
Colvin, G., & Tobin, T., & Beard, K., & Hagan, S., & Sprague, J. (1998). The School Bully: Assessing the Problem, Developing Interventions, and Future Research Directions. Journal of Behavioral Education, Vol.8, No.3, 1998. Pp. 293-319.
Maine Project Against Bullying Survey (attached).
Back to Maine Project Against Bullying's Home Page or Executive Summary.
Created 1/20/00.