Bullying affects students around the world. Although some bullies stop when challenged by an authority figure, such as a parent or a teacher, an often-overlooked aspect is known as ‘persistent bullying’ – a form of bullying that persists despite prevention and intervention efforts – and a team of researchers from the University of South Australia aims to shine a light on its causes and potential solutions.
While research indicates that typical bullying behaviours often decrease over time – potentially due to maturity or effective bullying prevention strategies – individuals who persistently bully others may continue this behaviour well into adulthood.
In their book chapter, Reforming Approaches to Persistent Bullying in Schools, Dr Deborah Green, Professor Barbara Spears (AM), and Dr Deborah Price explore the behaviour of persistent bullies.
Are bullies born or made?
When asked if persistent bullies are born or made, Green told EducationDaily “our research has found that engaging in persistent bullying is underpinned by the need to belong, have status, identity and power among the peer group”.
“If we think of bullying as a relationship problem that requires relationship solutions, then part of the solution lies with bullying being a learned behaviour which can be adaptive. Therefore, to help these children unlearn this behaviour we need to develop skills that enable interaction that does not involve aggression. Time spent unlearning and relearning the skills of how to effectively manage conflict without aggression, learning to agree to differ and develop tolerance of other’s differences is critical.”
She says “we also need to see bullying as a skill that needs to be unlearned, as opposed to a fault/problem that lies with an individual”.
“In doing this, the focus then shifts to what we can do to support the young person to unlearn and relearn skills to effectively navigate relationships,” Green told EducationDaily.
Whether bullies are created within families with their own dysfunction or bullying behaviour is, Green says, a tricky question to answer, “because this may be the case in some instances but is not always the case”.
“In the case study that we presented, the young person desperately wanted to belong and have a reputation among his peers. To achieve this, he engaged in bullying others,” Green says.
“Early on, he found that this provided contact, engagement and a reaction (albeit negative) from his peers, teachers and the school community and it also provided status, power and a reputation; all of which he desperately wanted. So, for him, bullying was adaptive and met his social needs/goals.”
Breaking the bullying cycle
Green says that “we know from longitudinal studies that there is a cycle of violence and aggression so finding ways to intervene and break that cycle is important”.
“Those who persist may have more complex learning to undo their learned behaviours than their peers. For them, the need to belong and status may be driving their behaviour however they are going about it in the wrong way,” she told EducationDaily.
“To understand persistent bullying more, we need to capture the lived experiences of these young people so that we can understand bullying from their perspective and most importantly we can understand what they need in terms of support.”
To help solve the problems caused by persistent bullies, Green says “we cannot underestimate the power of social skills that focus on relationship-building”.
“Time is needed to help all young people develop positive relationship and conflict management skills and then have time to practice these among their peers in a safe and supportive environment,” she told EducationDaily.
“For those who engage in persistent bullying, we need to recognise that time is needed to help them unlearn their current behaviours and relearn positive and effective relationship skills. To do this, we need targeted interventions that meet their needs as these young people appear to be immune to the current intervention strategies that schools employ.
“We would argue that there is a need to work with young people to co-design intervention/prevention strategies that can be targeted to their needs. We need to know from them what support they need.”
With the research showing that those who engage in bullying and do not alter their behaviours often follow a negative life trajectory into adulthood, Green says that trajectory can result in significant relational, social, and economic costs, impacting society at large.
“Those who are persistent are most at risk and need specific, targeted approaches to help them change their behaviours and their negative life trajectory,” she says.
“While interventions are successful with some children and young people, there remains around five per cent who continue bullying regardless of the measures taken.”
For some children and young people, she says, bullying is adaptive, providing them with a reputation within their peer group as powerful and strong. The status of being perceived as ‘powerful’ is crucial to them.
“If the bullying behaviour meets their social goals and needs – such as the need to belong or to have a reputation – then from a bully’s perspective, there may be no reason to stop,” Green says.
Early intervention is most effective
The research reinforces the importance of implementing prevention and intervention strategies at a young age. However, she points out that signs of bullying can emerge at any age, particularly during transitions to primary and secondary school, and if an individual has experienced bullying themselves.
“Some children and young people who are repeatedly victimised may eventually engage in bullying others, becoming known as bully-victims,” she says.
“Bully-victims are those who are at the highest risk of negative outcomes and impacts of both being a bully and being a victim. It’s those who continue to bully which we’re quite concerned about.”
Although extensive research has been done to prevent and intervene with what she describes as typical bullying, Green believes more research and funding is required to develop effective tactics to stop persistent bullying.
“With more funding from government sources, we would be able to explore the long-term effects of persistent bullying, and develop specific programs aimed at targeting persistent bullying at the root cause.”
“In the meantime, I’d like to encourage schools to address bullying behaviours in educative ways,” she says.
“Prevention and Intervention tactics could take the form of a multi-tiered system of support applied to absolutely everybody within a school, with persistent bullies at the top of the scale requiring a targeted intervention for individual children.”
