2-023 - Defining and Measuring Bullying

Session Type: Conversation Roundtable

Integrative Statement

Hundreds of millions of children and youth worldwide are directly involved with bullying every year and research has clearly documented the serious negative consequences that such involvement can have for both those who bully and those who are victimized. Yet the problem of bullying persists, despite significant and costly investments in research-based interventions that, on average, are not very effective.

High-quality interventions need to be founded on high-quality research that, in turn, must be built on reliable and valid measures of bullying. Current bullying research is characterized by a wide degree of heterogeneity with respect to how bullying is both defined and measured. This heterogeneity hampers efforts to translate bullying research: within the discipline, with the broader aggression literature, and into effective anti-bullying interventions.

We propose a roundtable that directly addresses issues of defining and measuring bullying in an effort to reach some conclusions regarding best practices in bullying research. In particular, we propose examination of five topics: a) theoretically, what is bullying and how does it differ from general aggression? b) do children define bullying in the same way as researchers? c) what do different raters tell us about bullying? d) how is bullying defined and measured in public and private organizations outside of academia? and e) what are the ecological factors that influence the aforementioned definition and measurement of bullying? A discussion of these topics should help standardize bullying research and allow for more effective translation across research as well as into knowledge mobilization aimed at reducing bullying.

Sub Unit

• Social Relationships

Moderator

• Anthony A Volk, Brock University

Panelists

• Shelley C Hymel, Univ of British Columbia

• Rene Veenstra, University of Groningen

• Wendy Craig, Queens Univ

• Dorothy Lynn Espelage, Univ of Illinois