70%of kids are bullies
25.02.2008
More than seven in 10 children have been a bully, shocking new figures from Beatbullying reveal.
56% of young people have experienced bullying, but new figures show that over 70% of young people have bullied, quashing the notion of a small minority of bullies wielding power over a majority of victims.
The research, conducted across a nationally representative sample of 3,000 secondary school-aged young people, was carried out by Beatbullying’s research team on the ground from 2005 to 2007.
The findings give, for the first time, an insight into the scope of the bullying problem from a new perspective. In an effort to understand the motivations of a bully, Beatbullying asked young people if they had ever bullied and if so, what had led them to do it.
Of these bullies, 5% said if they didn’t do it first it would happen to them, 4% said that they bully because their mates do it, 13% said anger was the reason and amazingly just over 2% thought it made them popular.
Emma-Jane Cross, Chief Executive of Beatbullying said:
“These figures show that the majority of bullying taking place in schools is not perpetrated by a recitative minority. Most bullying is low-level, perpetrated by young people who are easily led or incorrectly believe that it is inevitable, or worst still, that it makes them popular. The good news is that these young people are within our grasp, they are not the hard to reach with severe behavioural problems. Beatbullying can continue to educate these young people to easily change their behaviour.
“The other interesting finding of this research is that 13% of bullies do so because they are angry. Why is anger leading so many young people to take it out on each other? What are they angry about? A lot more work needs to be done here.
“For us to prevent bullying properly it is necessary to understand why young people bully in the first place. We believe bullies must be part of the solution, we must educate them as part of the wider community so they can make the decision to stop bullying.”
For Beatbullying, this approach works. Their research shows that, after being through the Beatbullying peer mentoring programmes (or BB Mentors), 77% of young people who had bullied in the past said that Beatbullying had helped them stop bullying and changed their attitude towards bullying.
Ms Cross continued:
“What is most surprising for us is that after all the successful campaigns to highlight the nasty effects of bullying, we are still finding that 2% of bullies do it because they think it makes them popular. 2% may seem tiny, but that’s about 60,000 bullies out there doing it because they think it makes them popular! We need to reach these young people swiftly and decisively.”
Perhaps most successfully, 92% of young graduates from BB Mentors who had been bullied in the past reported that they were no longer being bullied. Proving that Beatbullying’s prevention approach has a 360 degree success rate – helping both the bullies to stop bullying and the bullied to prevent bullying happening to them.
Beatbullying believes that bullying contradicts the basic British values of fair play, of social justice, of aspiration, of opportunity, of respect - it is something the whole nation must act collectively to eradicate, so we can support the millions of young people who lie in bed at night terrified to go to school the next morning. Young people that are being bullied at school are not able to make the most of themselves and their talents, because their ability to learn, to contribute, to be happy and just be a child is undermined and sometimes lost forever by bullying. The introduction of progressive bullying prevention programmes in the UK will reduce bullying, reduce truancy levels, increase attainment and reduce the incidents of racist and homophobic violence and abuse in our schools. In the best cases the BB Mentors programme has reduced bullying in schools by 80%.
Snapshot of the findings
71.4% said they had bullied someone, of these:
- 13% admitted anger was the reason
- 10% were bullied themselves
- 5% said if they didn’t do it first, it would happen to them
- 4% stated their mates do it
- 2% thought it made them popular
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For further information please contact Niall Cowley or Richard Piggin at the Beatbullying press office on 020 8768 1012 or 07515 520 967or pressoffice@beatbullying.org