U of Ideas of General Interest -- August 2000
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Contact: Craig Chamberlain, Education Editor (217) 333-2894; [email protected]
SCHOOLS
In early middle school, popularity and bullying often connected
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Previous research says the boys who bully most in grade school are often on the social fringe. In sixth grade, the first year of middle school, however, bullying apparently becomes popular, says Dorothy Espelage, a University of Illinois professor.
In a survey conducted at an Illinois middle school, Espelage found a "very strong" correlation between popularity and bullying among sixth-grade boys. "Those kids that were nominated as those that were doing the most teasing and bullying were also the kids that were being nominated as the most popular and having the most friends in the school," she said.
In her research, Espelage defines bullying as behaviors ranging from name-calling and teasing to threats and physical aggression. Not included is kidding among friends.
Curiously, the correlation between popularity and bullying declined in the seventh grade, and basically disappeared in the eighth, Espelage said. "So something happens in seventh grade that teasing and name-calling becomes less popular, or those kids who do it become less popular," she said.
Maybe bullying serves a function for sixth-grade boys as they attempt to negotiate their way in the peer group, and as they find themselves on the lowest rung at a new school and on the verge of early adolescence, Espelage suggested. "It could just be how males adjust to middle school."
Espelage will present her findings this month at the American Psychological Association convention Aug. 4-8 in Washington, D.C. The school that was the subject of the research covered grades six through eight, and the survey included 513 students, or about 90 percent of the enrollment.
In the same survey, Espelage also sought to determine what effect bullying was having on its victims, and found the results disturbing. Using a standard mental health survey instrument, she found the victims were not taking their treatment by peers lightly. "For sixth-grade males, the correlation between victimization, and anxiety, depression and suicidality [having suicidal thoughts] is ... very, very strong," she found. The correlation went down but remained strong for boys in the next two grades.
Espelage is aware that many teachers and parents might fail to recognize and address the problem because they see a certain degree of bullying as just part of growing up. But with many of the kids most seriously victimized, "we're dealing with potentially serious mental health issues," she said.
Espelage, who has been researching bullying for more than six years, is among the first to examine the potential tie between bullying and peer influence in U.S. middle schools. The interest in the connection grew out of a previous study, she noted, but it also makes sense to research it given that smoking, alcohol use and sexual decisions have all been examined in the light of peer influence.
"What happens to the kids that see that teasing and name-calling does make them more popular -- do they go on to become more aggressive?" Espelage asked. "The goal here is to say 'If these things predict bullying, then how can we intervene.' "
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