The Anti-Bullying Alliance and its members have an agreed shared definition of bullying based on research from across the world over the last 30 years.
Bullying is the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. It can happen face to face or online.
Anti-Bullying Alliance
Definition of bullying
Anti-Bullying Alliance definition of bullying
There are four key elements to this definition:
- hurtful
- repetition
- power imbalance
- intentional
In this short video you will hear about what we mean by a 'power imbalance':
Bullying behaviour can be:
- Physical – pushing, poking, kicking, hitting, biting, pinching etc.
- Verbal - name calling, sarcasm, spreading rumours, threats, teasing, belittling.
- Emotional – isolating others, tormenting, hiding books, threatening gestures, ridicule, humiliation, intimidating, excluding, manipulation and coercion.
- Sexual – unwanted physical contact, inappropriate touching, abusive comments, homophobic abuse, exposure to inappropriate films etc.
- Online /cyber – posting on social media, sharing photos, sending nasty text messages, social exclusion
- Indirect - Can include the exploitation of individuals.
Bullying tends to be a group behaviour
Research undertaken in Finland by Christina Salmivalli (1996) gave us a greater understanding of the roles involved in bullying. It showed that the traditional view of bullying where there is a ‘victim’ and a ‘bully’ was much more complicated. Bullying rarely takes place between a 'victim' and a 'bully' alone. It tends to be a group behaviour. Others can have a significant influence on the outcomes of behaviours among children and young people intentionally or otherwise.
The video below explains more about these roles.