This is a literature review on whether bullying in schools leads to violence. Bullying is not a condition that is “diagnosed,” but rather a public and social health problem that the APA has commented on. The APA notes that bullying—which “can take the form of physical contact, words or more subtle actions”—is an “aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort” (APA, n.d.). Bullying is especially prevalent in schools (O’Moore, 1990), because children generally are not able to understand the wrongness of their actions; young adults generally do not care about the wrongness of their actions; and in any event it is impossible to impose genuinely severe consequences for bullying in school because children cannot be held criminally or civilly accountable for bullying. This literature review examines whether there is evidence to link violent behavior with bullying in schools.
Liang et al. (2007) investigated bullies, “bully-victims,” and victims in South African schools. Bully-victims are victims of bullying who also bully other people. They found that “violent and anti-social behaviors were increased in bullies, victims and bully-victims compared to controls not involved in any bullying behavior (p < .01 in all cases).” This means that victims were significantly more likely than those that had never been involved in bullying, either as victims or as perpetrators, to be violent or anti-social. They also found that suicidal ideation and smoking were elevated for those involved in bullying. Kim et al. (2011) engaged in a longitudinal study of bullying victims beginning with grade five and progressing until the age 21. They found that bullying in grade 5 was significantly associated with violent behaviors and drinking problems later in life. This suggests that bullying in schools can not only cause violence in school; it can also cause violence outside of school. The problems bullying causes do not vanish after the schoolhouse gates. Nansel et al. (2003) considered whether bullying should “be considered a normative aspect of youth development” or whether it instead should be attacked as a public health problem. They found that bullying in school and away from school significantly contributed to aberrant violent behavior. “For example, the adjusted odds ratio for weapon carrying associated with being bullied in school weekly was 1.5, for bullying others in school 2.6, for being bullied away from school 4.1, and for bullying others away from school 5.9.” Kim et al. (2006) investigated whether bullying causes psychopathic behavior or stems from psychopathic behavior. Some people suggest that bullying victims are bullied because they do not fit in and display aberrant behaviors (including violence). However, Kim’s results are that bullying causes psychopathic and violent behavior. Strom et al. (2013) investigated the relationship between bullying, other kinds of violence, and academic achievement. They found that all forms of bullying and violence reduced academic achievement. Although they did not directly investigate whether bullying causes victims to act violently, it should be noted that lower academic achievement is generally believed to cause worsened life outcomes, which generally makes a person more likely to engage in violence. Farrington and Ttofi (2011) used a combination of interviews and criminal records searches to track more than 400 London boys over the course of their lives, from age 8 to age 50. They were interested in whether being bullied makes a person more likely to be violent and commit crimes later in life. They found that even after controlling for variables like socioeconomic status, “Bullying at age 14 predicted violent convictions between ages 15 and 20, self?reported violence at age 15–18, low job status at age 18, drug use at age 27–32, and an unsuccessful life at age 48.” Bender and Losel (2011) also investigated life outcomes, including violent behavior, in relation to bullying. They also used a longitudinal study, but did not use as long a sample. They studied men from ages 15 to 25. Unlike the other results, they found that although bullies definitely exhibited more anti-social behaviors later in life, bullying victims did not. Finally, Ttofi et al. (2012) performed a meta-review of the literature to identify trends in the literature. They searched 62 peer-reviewed journals and 19 databases to find every available article on bullying and later violence. They found that people who engaged in bullying were 1.7 times as likely to engage in later violence as those who did not. The effect on victims was smaller, but still “highly significant”—victims of bullying were one and a half times as likely as controls to engage in violent behavior later in life, suggesting that engaging in bullying enforces a pattern of violent behavior that will continue into the future, and that being bullied also causes a person to be more likely to be violent in the future (perhaps because being a victim makes a person more likely to lash out). With the exception of Bender and Losel (2011), all of the surveyed sources found that bullying victims, as well as bullies, were more likely to engage in violent behaviors, were more likely to consume alcohol, and generally were more likely to exhibit undesirable behaviors. The consistency of the results indicates that bullying is a social health problem. By bullying the vulnerable, bullies wield the power to change the lives of their victims for the worse, and set them on a track that they may never recover from. This literature review illustrates the urgency of the problem of bullying in schools.
- APA. (n.d.). Bullying. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from http://www.apa.org/
- Bender, D., & L?sel, F. (2011). Bullying at school as a predictor of delinquency, violence and other anti?social behaviour in adulthood. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 21(2), 99–106.
- Farrington, D. P., & Ttofi, M. M. (2011). Bullying as a predictor of offending, violence and later life outcomes. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 21(2), 90–98.
- Kim, M. J., Catalano, R. F., Haggerty, K. P., & Abbott, R. D. (2011). Bullying at elementary school and problem behaviour in young adulthood: A study of bullying, violence and substance use from age 11 to age 21. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 21(2), 136–144.
- Kim, Y. S., Leventhal, B. L., Koh, Y.-J., Hubbard, A., & Boyce, W. T. (2006). School bullying and youth violence: causes or consequences of psychopathologic behavior? Archives of General Psychiatry, 63(9), 1035–1041.
- Liang, H., Flisher, A. J., & Lombard, C. J. (2007). Bullying, violence, and risk behavior in South African school students. Child Abuse & Neglect, 31(2), 161–171.
- Nansel, T. R., Overpeck, M. D., Haynie, D. L., Ruan, W. J., & Scheidt, P. C. (2003). Relationships between bullying and violence among US youth. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 157(4), 348–353.
- O’Moore, M. (1990). Bullying in schools. Western European Education, 22(1), 92–117.
- Str?m, I. F., Thoresen, S., Wentzel-Larsen, T., & Dyb, G. (2013). Violence, bullying and academic achievement: A study of 15-year-old adolescents and their school environment. Child Abuse & Neglect, 37(4), 243–251.
- Ttofi, M. M., Farrington, D. P., & L?sel, F. (2012). School bullying as a predictor of violence later in life: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective longitudinal studies. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 17(5), 405–418.
