Observations of Bullying in the Classroom

Abstract The prevalence and nature of bullying was assessed on the basis of observations of children's interactions in the classroom. This study was based on a systemic-developmental model of bullying and victimization. Participants were drawn from 1 public school in metropolitan Toronto. Twenty-seven children (19 boys, 8 girls) identified by teachers as aggressive and nonaggressive were targeted for filming. The 27 children were identified from the total number of students (N = 190) in the 8 classrooms. There were 60 bullying episodes observed from 28 hr of video and remote audio recordings of classroom observations. Bullying occurred twice every hour in the classroom and was short in duration. The boys and girls bullied at the same rate. Peers were involved in some capacity (from actively participating to passively onlooking) in 85% of the bullying episodes. Results suggest that bullying unfolds in a peer context in the classroom and is related to the type of classroom activity and individual characteristics of children involved in bullying conflicts.