Rates of bullying perpetration and victimisation: a longitudinal study of secondary school students in Victoria, Australia

Bullying perpetration and victimisation are common issues confronting schools. To understand the extent of bullying in schools and differences in the experiences of boys and girls, longitudinal studies of different subtypes of bullying perpetration and victimisation are essential. The current study aims to describe the rates of bullying perpetration (non-technology-based [traditional] bullying, cyberbullying and relational aggression) and victimisation (traditional face-to-face bullying, and cyberbullying) in a sample of almost 800 Grade Nine students in Victoria, Australia, followed up in Grades 10 and 11. In the current paper, data from Grades 9 to 11 are described and analysed. The results showed that the most common form of bullying in Grades 9–11 was relational aggression, with up to 72% of boys and 65% of girls in Grade Nine reporting that they engaged in relational aggression. In Grades 9–11 rates of traditional bullying perpetration and relational aggression were higher in boys than girls, whereas rates of traditional bullying victimisation in Grade Nine and cyberbullying victimisation in Grades 9 and 10 were higher in girls than boys. Across time, gender differences in victimisation reduced. Rates of traditional bullying perpetration increased in boys and girls from Grade Nine to Grade 11, whereas rates of relational aggression decreased over time for boys and girls. The implications of these findings for schools are that rates of bullying perpetration, including more covert forms of bullying behaviour, are high. Anti-bullying programmes in schools need to target all of the different subtypes of bullying.

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