Studies Probe 'Ecology' of Bullying

In the mid-1990s, a pair of Canadian researchers videotaping children on playgrounds made a simple observation that helped shift experts’ views about bullying: When children bullied other children, they rarely did it alone.

“People began to realize that bullying wasn’t just a problem between two kids,” said Susan M. Swearer, an associate professor of school psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “It moved a lot of people’s thinking toward the complexity of bullying.”

Research now suggests that bullies, their victims, bystanders, parents, teachers, and other adults in the building are all part of an ecology in schools that can either sustain or suppress bullying behaviors. And finding a solution to the problem requires a similarly broad, multilevel response, an interdisciplinary group of researchers argued earlier this year in a special issue of Educational Researcher .