Ken Rigby

University of South Australia | UniSA · School of Education

Numerous studies of bullying in schools have identified aspects of the environment (E) and aspects of the person (P) as contributing to the prevalence of bullying in schools. It is proposed that the concept of desire can play a central role in explaining how bullying in schools arises and how it can be effectively addressed by schools by promoting...

This article examines alternative and supplementary ways in which theorists and researchers have sought to account for bullying behavior among students in schools. Contemporary explanations acknowledge the variety, complexity, and interactivity of both person and environmental factors in determining acts of bullying in schools. Two explanatory mode...

Multiperspectivity on School Bullying is unique in providing a comprehensive account of school bullying from the perspectives of schools, teachers, parents, students and institutional authorities. It identifies diverse viewpoints and discusses their implications for addressing bullying and thereby improving the mental health and well-being of child...

Previous studies undertaken internationally have concluded that teachers commonly underestimate the prevalence of bullying among students at their schools. Evidence supporting this claim is based upon findings that estimations of bullying prevalence derived from the self-reports of individual students are higher than the estimations made by teacher...

Student victims of peer bullying (n = 223) in 25 coeducational Australian schools answered a questionnaire to provide accounts of how their school responded to their requests for help. In addition, respondents indicated how severely they were emotionally impacted by the bullying and whether the bullying was perpetrated by an individual or by a grou...

Bullying in schools, defined as a systematic abuse of power in interpersonal relations, may be undertaken individually and/or by groups. The extent to which schoolchildren report that they are bullied by their peers in each of these ways was examined in a survey of Australian schoolchildren (N = 1688) in Years 5–10 attending 36 coeducational primar...

Although considerable research has been directed towards understanding and addressing bullying in schools in western countries, comparatively little has been undertaken in Arab countries. This article provides the first detailed examination of the nature and prevalence of peer victimisation and bullying behaviour among students in Grades 6 to 9 in...

This report examines school bullying in a sample of schools in the UAE during 2015- 2017. It focuses upon three issues (i) the prevalence of bullying among students (ii) the impact of an intervention applied in schools to reduce bullying and (iii) the level of understanding among teachers and students of what is known about bullying based upon publ...

Interventions to address traditional forms of bullying in schools include proactive strategies designed to prevent bullying from occurring as well as reactive strategies designed to stop cases of bullying from continuing. These two strategies are seen as complementary. This chapter critically examines a range of methods of intervention. Each can be...

Views on how schools in Australia are responding to student victimisation were accessed through an on-line survey answered by 167 parents whose children were attending government schools in year levels 5 to 10. Some 50.2% of the parents believed that their children had been bullied at school. The perceptions and judgments of these parents were comp...

With the growing recognition of the serious problem of bullying in schools, attention is drawn to the gap between what is known through research about school-based bullying and what is being applied in schools. This article seeks to identify areas in which the beliefs of teachers about school bullying agree with, or diverge from, what has been clai...

Students’ perceptions of the nature and prevalence of bullying and how the problem was being addressed were investigated in a convenience sample of 1688 students in years 5–10 attending Australian government schools. Comparisons were made between students who reported that they had been bullied during the previous 12 months and others. Rankings of...

School-based bullying has been widely recognised as a significant problem worldwide and a great deal of research has been undertaken to understand its nature, causes and consequences, and to identify strategies that can be undertaken to reduce its prevalence. This chapter provides an overview of international research into school bullying that can...

Despite the continual rise in research into school bullying worldwide, comparatively little has been reported on actions that have been taken by schools to counter the problem. This article reports on a small-scale, exploratory study that was designed to provide an account of strategies that were being undertaken in 25 Australian government schools...

According to student surveys conducted cross-nationally, a substantial proportion of students continue to be bullied at school after they have sought help from teachers. This article examines a range of strategies that teachers employ in dealing with bully/victim cases. The most commonly used strategy is Direct Sanctions: the imposition of discipli...

Recognising the potential health risk of bullying in schools, numerous anti-bullying interventions have been developed. These have been designed to prevent bullying from happening and/or to stop bullying from continuing once it has occurred. Evaluations of the effectiveness of such interventions indicate some positive effects in reducing the level...

Previous research has indicated that harm to the mental health of children who are repeatedly victimised by their peers at school can be ameliorated through social or emotional support provided by other students. In this study we examined whether student provictim attitudes are related to more basic attitudes to self and attitudes to others. Measur...

Attitudes and beliefs of Australian schoolchildren about bullying in schools were assessed and related to age, gender and reported involvement in bullying others at school. Questionnaires were answered anonymously by 2940 boys and 2508 girls attending 20 South Australian coeducational schools; student ages ranged from 9 to 18 years. The questionnai...

Two views were examined on the development of attitudes toward institutional authority: one proposing that such attitudes are normally transmitted from parent to offspring, the other that such attitudes develop as a consequence of childhood experiences with the trustworthiness of parental authorities. University students in England (N = 50) complet...

The Concept of Bullying The Prevalence of Bullying The Prevalence of Bullying The Harm of Bullying The Perpetrators The Targets The Context of the Bullying Summary Endnotes

The Social Philosophy of the School Knowledge and Understanding of the Methods Available to Address Cases of School Bullying Endnotes

When to Intervene What is an Intervention? Sources of Information About Bullying Behavior Summary Endnotes

The Application of the Method of Shared Concern Critique The Future Endnotes

Currently the main approach in responding to bullying in schools is to focus on undesired behaviours and to apply sanctions. This approach is often ineffective as well as failing to address the needs of children as persons as distinct from the behaviour they produce. A proposed alternative approach is to inquire into the motivation of children who...

Bullying has long been recognized as a form of interpersonal behavior practiced by many people, but it has not been regarded as a major social problem until relatively recently. In fact, at times, bullying has been viewed positively. For example, in Shakespeare's Henry V, a soldier, Pistol, approves of his king, saying, “I love the lovely bully. I...

Whether bullying in schools is increasing, as is widely believed, was investigated drawing upon empirical studies undertaken in a wide range of countries in which findings had been published describing its prevalence at different points in time between 1990 and 2009. Results do not support the view that reported bullying in general has increased du...

Reports from schoolchildren across a range of countries indicate that interventions by teachers in cases of bullying are commonly unsuccessful, especially with older students. This article pro-vides a brief description and critical examination of six major intervention strategies employed in schools and points to the need for better training of tea...

Reports from schoolchildren in a variety of countries suggest that school-based interventions tackling cases of bullying are often unsuccessful. Closer attention is needed to the adequacy and appropriateness of specific forms of intervention. This article examines the contribution that can be made through the use of a non-punitive approach known as...

This report describes the development of a concise scale to assess attitudes toward institutional authorities. The Scale is shown to be highly reliable upon cross-validation, using 100 Australian and 100 British tertiary students. The generality of the Scale is demonstrated through significant inter-correlations between the Scale's four sub-scales,...

In the absence of compelling evidence supporting ESP, it is proposed that attention be directed towards correlates of belief in ESP. Two hundred and nineteen undergraduate students participated fully in an experiment in which attempts were made to send messages in the form of numbers by telepathy. As in a similar experiment reported by Grimmer and...

The relationship between Eysenck's personality factors, E (Extraversion), N (Neuroticism), P (Psychoticism) and L (Lie Scale) and general orientation toward authority was examined with 250 secondary school students; orientation was assessed by measures of attitudes towards institutional authorities and self-reported pro-authority behaviour. Signifi...

The extent of attitude-behaviour consistency with respect to orientation toward authority was investigated among 100 college students and 100 non-students. The General Attitude to Institutional Authority Scale (the GAIAS) was administered to all subjects, together with self-rating scales to assess the frequency of 24 authority-related behaviours. I...

A sample of 735 US teachers and school counsellors completed an online survey asking how likely they would be to use various strategies to respond to a hypothetical bullying incident. Analyses examined their use of five strategies: Ignoring the incident, Working with the bully, Working with the victim, Enlisting other adults, and Disciplining the b...

Recognizing the potential heath risk of bullying in schools, numerous anti-bullying interventions have been developed. These measures have been designed to prevent bullying from happening and/or to stop bullying from continuing once it has occurred. Evaluations of the effectiveness of such interventions indicate several positive effects in reducing...

Hardly a day goes by without reports of incidents of school bullying or recommendations for quick fixes to the problem. Parents and educators are often left trying to solve a difficult problem without sufficient evidence to support suggested remedies. Drawing on a wealth of research, Ken Rigby provides both parents and educators with clear explanat...

Previous studies have indicated significant associations between relatively poor mental health of children and both perceived negative parenting and exposure to peer victimization at school. This paper examines their relative contribution to the mental status of adolescent school children. Questionnaires were administered to Australian school child...

Understanding the nature of bullying in schools can assist in understanding aggression between nations. Although there are substantial differences between bullying behaviour practised by school children and bullying attributed to nations, there are some commonalities. This article examines seven basic elements that help in identifying and describin...

Promoting interventive action on the part of student bystanders witnessing peer victimisation is currently seen as a promising way of reducing bullying in schools. A video depicting bullying in the presence of bystanders was viewed by late primary (n = 200) and early secondary school students (n = 200). Some 43% of the students indicated that they...

There has been a remarkable growth of interest throughout the world in the phenomena of bullying or peer victimisation in schools (Smith, Morita, Junger-Tas, Olweus, Catalano, & Slee, 1999; Smith, Pepler, & Rigby, 2004). It has been repeatedly claimed that involvement in bully/victim problems at school, either as a bully or as a victim or as both,...

This article outlines and appraises the method of shared concern as developed by Anatol Pikas and applied as a technique for resolving bully–victim problems in schools. It includes a description of how the method can be applied in schools, and critically examines some objections that have been raised to its use. These objections are shown to be lar...

Recent research into bullying in schools has focused upon the social context in which bullying commonly takes place and the roles taken by student bystanders observing the bullying. This article describes a methodology that has been developed, employing a video presentation and a related questionnaire, and applied in a number of countries, includin...

Bullying in schools typically occurs with student bystanders present. How and why bystanders react as they do was examined with primary (n=200) and secondary (n=200) students attending Australian state coeducational schools. They viewed a video depicting bullying incidents and recorded how they thought they would respond as bystanders. Responses we...

The tendency for school children to bully others was conceived as lying along a continuum of frequency, ranging from zero to very high. To examine social factors that may influence the position of individual students on this continuum, questionnaires were administered to Australian school children attending state coeducational schools: primary (N =...

While reviewing various articles submitted for this issue I thought that there are experts on bullying who are probably not familiar with the Teaching and Learning journal but might be willing to contribute their viewpoint if they were invited to do so. With that premise in mind I contacted Dr. Debra Pepler of the La Marsh Institute, York Universit...

This volume represents an unprecedented opportunity to reflect on interventions to address bullying problems at school. The contributors have been generous in their willingness to be part of this collective reflection. We benefit from their honesty in not only sharing the highlights of successful outcomes but also in providing rare glimpses of the...

A brief historical background Over the last two decades, bullying in schools has become an issue of widespread concern (Smith, Morita, Junger-Tas, Olweus, Catalano and Slee, 1999). This is not to say that in earlier times bullying in schools was ignored. There was much animated public discussion of bullying in English private schools in the mid-nin...

Bullying in Schools is the first comparative account of the major intervention projects against school bullying that have been carried out by educationalists and researchers since the 1980s, across Europe, North America and Australasia. Working on the principle that we can learn from success as well as failure, this book examines the processes as w...

Bullying in schools is now regarded as an important social problem which schools need to address. However, recent evaluations of existing anti-bullying programs have not indicated a high level of success in the reduction of bullying. This article seeks to critically examine the theoretical perspectives that have been adopted in explaining the preva...

The paper examines the relationship between family functioning and the involvement of adolescent schoolchildren in bully/victim problems at school. Australian high school students between the ages of 13 and 16 years completed a Family Functioning in Adolescence Questionnaire (FFAQ) as a measure of the psychosocial well-being of their families. Stud...

1. Introduction: the broader perspective. 2. Towards a definition of bullying. 3. Bullying in childhood. 4. The school and beyond. 5. Bullying and health: a research perspective. 6. What bullies and victims are like. 7. Why bully? 8. The contribution of differences. 9.Places and situation. 10. Attitudes and beliefs. 11. What is to be done about bul...

Advice to schools on countering bullying has emphasised the need for a whole school approach. This implies close collaboration between students and teachers. Little attention, however, has been paid to how students view the prospects of such collaboration. Two student surveys (n=7091 and n=632) were conducted among Australian adolescent schoolchild...

For the most part, studies of the consequences of bullying in schools have concentrated upon health outcomes for children persistently bullied by their peers. Conclusions have been influenced by how bullying has been conceptualized and assessed, the specific health outcomes investigated, and the research method and data analysis employed. Results f...

The prevalence and hurtfulness of aggressive actions from peers at school experienced by Australian adolescents was examined with a sample of 652 Year 9 students (mean age 14 years) attending seven secondary schools in Adelaide, South Australia. Kinds of aggressive actions reported were categorised as physical, verbal and relational. In general, bo...

It has been suggested that the mental health of schoolchildren can be undermined by repeated bullying at school and further exacerbated by having inadequate social support. To evaluate this claim, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) was administered anonymously to 845 adolescent schoolchildren attending coeducational secondary schools in South A...

To counter bullying at an Australian coeducational secondary school, staff and students co-operated in developing and implementing appropriate policies and procedures. Questionnaires assessing the incidence of bullying and related attitudes were completed by students in Years 7, 9, 10 and 11 in 1995 and again in 1997. Significant reductions in leve...

Although previous studies have indicated that children who are frequently bullied by peers at school have below average health, both the generalisability of such findings across age groups and how they can be best explained have remained unclear. (i) To examine whether reported peer victimisation is related to current levels of physical and mental...

Relationships among suicidal ideation, involvement in bully-victim problems at school, and perceived social support were investigated with samples of adolescent students (N = 1103 and N = 845) attending secondary school in South Australia. Results obtained from self-reports and peer nomination procedures to identify bullies and victims indicated th...

The relationship between involvement in bully/victim problems at school and the reported health of adolescents was investigated using questionnaires completed anonymously by 819 Australian schoolchildren attending coeducational high school. From self-reports of their relations with peers at school, respondents were categorized as victims, bullies,...

Bully-victim problems at school may have negative effects on students' mental health. Adolescents (N = 845) attending schools in South Australia anonymously answered questionnaires that included a measure of suicidal ideation. Student involvement in bully-victim problems at school and the emotional reaction to being viaimised by peers were also exa...

The relationship was examined between the self-reported cooperativeness of Australian secondary-school students and their involvement in peer abuse at school, both as bullies and as victims. An 18-item Likert-type measure, the Cooperativeness Scale, was developed, and its reliability and concurrent validity were supported by the results of its appl...

It is argued that much needed policies and practices to counter bullying in Australian schools should be based upon a realistic appraisal of what is known through research into the nature of the problem. This article provides a review of relevant Australian research between 1991 and 1996 conducted primarily by the author and co-workers, drawing par...

In an examination of factors associated with delinquent behaviour of adolescent school children, questionnaires were administered to students (N = 763) between the ages of 13 and 17 years attending a large coeducational high school in Australia. They answered questions anonymously to provide measures of (i) the extent to which they bullied their pe...

For many counsellors and teachers who are concerned about the so-called bully/victim problem in schools, what to do with the school bully is the central issue. One might wish otherwise. It is sometimes argued that if more time and effort were spent in preventing bullying through the development of appropriate policies in schools and the encourageme...

Links were examined between three dimensions of peer relating at school among Australian children and selected family and parental background factors. Questionnaires containing measures of children's tendencies to bully others, to be victimized, and to act in a prosocial manner were administered to boys and girls (N = 1,012) aged 11 to 16 years. In...

Considers Australian and overseas research that highlights the extent of child-on-child violence and the effect of peer group victimization on both the perpetrator and victim. Examines how such personalized aggression is reflected in the child's psychological well-being and peer relations. Also considers the nature of school intervention programs t...

Previous studies on attitudes toward authority among non-Aboriginal school children in Australia have provided some support for the notion that attitudes toward parents influence the development of attitudes toward other institutional authorities, and that school children have generally positive attitudes toward such authorities. The cross-cultural...

Studies of the relationship between attitudes to authority and factors assessed by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) among young people have hitherto been examined only with adolescent subjects, for whom it has been suggested that rebellion against parental and societal authority occurs as a response to developmental factors not present a...

Three dimensions of interpersonal relations among Australian school children were hypothesized as reflecting tendencies (a) to bully others, (b) to be victimized by others, and (c) to relate to others in a prosocial and cooperative manner. School children from two secondary schools (School A, n = 285; School B, n = 877) answered 20 questions assess...

The extent and nature of bullying among South Australian primary school children and their self appraisals of peer relations were investigated in a survey of 412 primary school children between the ages of 7 to 13 years. It was found that 10% of boys and 6% of girls were subject to peer group bullying and for 8% of such children the bullying episod...

The extent and nature of bullying among South Australian primary school children and their self appraisals of peer relations were investigated in a survey of 412 primary school children between the ages of 7 to 13 years. It was found that 10% of boys and 6% of girls were subject to peer group bullying and for 8% of such children the bullying episod...

In the present study we examined the relevance of selected personality variables, namely Eysenck's factors of extraversion, psychoticism and neuroticism, and the psychological well being factor of self-esteem to the tendency to bully and to be victimized. Male primary school children (n = 87) with a mean age of 10.9 years completed the Junior Eysen...

In a recent article, Heaven and Furnham (1991; Personality and Individual Differences, 12, 977–982) examined correlates of orientation to authority based, in part, upon scores obtained from considerably modified versions of two measures developed by my colleagues and myself. These were an attitude to authority scale and a so-called Authority Behavi...

Despite the widespread belief that medical authority is under increasing challenge, no adequate research instrument has been available to measure relevant community attitudes. This paper reports the development of the Attitude Toward Medical Practitioners Scale (the AMPS). Samples of Australians (in total N > 1000) completed the AMPS, using three d...

Recently theory and scales measuring authoritarianism and cynicism of police have come into close scrutiny. In particular, Langworthy (1987:28,33) has concluded from his review of 21 empirical studies that police cynicism appears to have several different dimensions and that the “failure to detect cynicism or a factor closely related to it is a pro...

This article examined the relationship between impulsiveness and attitudes toward institutional authority among Australian secondary school students. Reliable questionnaire measures of these constructs were completed by 48 boys and 57 girls, about 14 years of age. Correlations between impulsiveness and attitude to authority differed between the sex...

This study examined ways in which people from different occupational backgrounds in South Australia perceived issues relevant to the misuse of substances. Questionnaires were completed by representatives from eight occupational groups, namely, Doctors, Nurses, Ambulance Officers, Social Workers, Youth Workers, Teachers, the Police, and Probation an...

The extent of bullying among Australian school children and attitudes toward victims of bullying were investigated in a survey of Australian school children between the ages of 6 and 16 years (n = 685) and their teachers (n = 32). Approximately 1 child in 10 was subjected to peer group bullying. Boys reported being bullied more often than girls, wh...

This study investigated whether selected social psychological factors predisposed individuals from four different countries to support the policy of nuclear disarmament. Social surveys were conducted during 1986 in Australia, West Germany, Netherlands and the United States. Community samples (n>160) of residents in each of the countries completed m...