Understanding why children and young people engage in bullying

This article explores some of the underlying causes of bullying and the outcomes for the quality of children's lives. It also outlines some of the major interventions which are currently being developed in the UK and other European countries to counteract the problem. School bullying takes different forms, including physical and psychological, direct and indirect. Both staff and pupils are more likely to view physical bullying as more serious and harmful than other forms of bullying. Bullying does not just happen between individuals but takes place in the context of a peer group; the majority of children can be placed in at least one of a range of participant roles in bullying: bully, victim, assistant to the bully, reinforce of the bully, outsider or defender. A number of factors, such as race, religion or culture, disability, sexual orientation and gender, might be used by the peer group to justify bullying others. Bullying can have some very serious outcomes in terms of mental health and social functioning. Those who bully are at risk as well as those who are bullied. There are a number of well-documented interventions that have been shown to reduce or prevent bullying but constant vigilance is needed. Most effective are those interventions that involve the whole school as a community and that address the problem at several levels: individual, classroom, school and wider community.訳: エリクソン, ユキコ ・山崎,