Bullying Among University Students

Cross-national perspectives

Helen Cowie, Carrie Myers

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781317611233
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Bullying Amongst University Students is a pioneering collection of knowledge and evidence exploring the under-researched phenomenon of bullying in universities. Abusive behaviour amongst young people is a serious and pervasive problem that is exacerbated by the rapid advances in electronic communication, and in this book the authors highlight the problem and proceed to facilitate new practices and policies to address it.

This book brings together an international team of authors from a range of disciplines, encompassing education, psychology, criminology, law and counselling, who have carried out research in the area of university bullying. Addressing critical dialogues and debates, the authors explore peer on peer violence, intimidation and social exclusion before considering its effects on students and making recommendations for action and further research. Key topics include:

• Cyberbullying and cyber aggression
• Rape culture across the university
• Homophobic and transphobic bullying
• The impact of bullying on mental health
• The role of bully and victim across the lifespan
• Policies and procedures to address bullying

International in authorship and scope, this book will be an invaluable resource for students and researchers in fields such as education, psychology, sociology, health studies and criminology. It is also essential reading for university policy-makers and union representatives responsible for the emotional and physical well-being of students.

Part III
The nature of bullying at university

4 Do The Roles of Bully and Victim Remain Stable from School to University?

Theoretical considerations

Maili Pörhölä

DOI: 10.4324/9781315750132-4

This chapter explores the continuities in bullying from school contexts to university contexts, and discusses the possible reasons why some people remain in the role of bully or victim over time and through various social contexts, whereas others find a way to escape these roles. Two theories – peer community integration theory and positioning theory – are reviewed to examine the ways in which engagement in bullying processes at school is associated with the development of individuals’ peer relationships and their position within the peer group; the impact of bullying on their perceptions of themselves and others; and how bullying affects the establishment of future peer relationships through which these individuals integrate into social communities in later life. The chapter concludes by discussing the impact that supportive peer relationships have for an individual who has been engaged in bullying. The significance of the social cognitive processes in which individuals make sense of their bullying experiences are emphasized, as they are able to re-determine their peer group position and change their role as bully or victim.

Introduction

Individuals integrate into groups and communities through their interpersonal relationships. It is the quality of our interpersonal relationships that often promotes or prevents us from succeeding in the integration process. Hence, becoming an equal and accepted member of one’s social community is important for our individual well-being and success. Bullying is widely identified as a pervasive social problem, which can prevent individuals from becoming equal and accepted members in groups and social communities in which they need or wish to integrate (Pörhölä and Kinney 2010).

As schoolmates comprise the most important peer community for children and adolescents for a number of years, successful integration into this peer community becomes crucial for the psychosocial well-being and development of individuals, and forms the foundation for their ability to integrate into other communities, such as campus life during the undergraduate years. Being engaged in bullying at school therefore poses a severe developmental risk for individuals, whether they are in the role of bully, victim, or act in dual roles. In addition to causing several kinds of psychosocial and physical health problems (Due et al. 2005; Hawker and Boulton 2000; Houbre et al. 2006; Kaltiala-Heino et al. 2000), being engaged in bullying can prevent individuals from becoming integrated into their peer communities during childhood and adolescence, and even in young adulthood.

This chapter first reviews research on the continuities of abusive peer relationships in individuals’ lives, focusing on repeated bullying and victimization experiences. The chapter continues by providing theoretical perspectives to help understand why these continuities tend to persist in individuals’ peer relationships from one social context to another, hampering their integration into their peer communities.

Continuities of bullying and victimization

The studies examining the continuity of abusive peer relationships suggest that the roles of bullies and victims remain quite stable from elementary to middle school and high school (Boulton and Smith 1994; Salmivalli et al. 1998; Schäfer et al. 2005; Sourander et al. 2000). For example, Schäfer et al. conducted a six-year longitudinal study following German second and third graders through to the seventh and eighth grades, and found that bullying behaviour in elementary school was likely to continue at the later age, although being victimized by peers did not have similar continuity. However, in their eight-year longitudinal study among Finnish students, Sourander et al. found that bullying at age eight was associated with bullying at age 16, and being bullied at age eight was associated with being bullied at age 16.

Evidence also exists to suggest that the roles of bully and victim tend to remain stable from childhood to adulthood and from school settings to higher education and workplace contexts. For example, in a retrospective study by Chapell et al. (2006) in the United States, it was found that 54 per cent of individuals who admitted to having bullied as adults had also bullied during childhood and adolescence. In Canada, Curwen, McNichol, and Sharpe (2011) examined 159 female and 37 male undergraduates who had bullied a fellow student at least once since coming to university and detected that most of the bullies at university had a history of bullying at school. Bauman and Newman (2013) examined a sample of 709 university students in the USA and found that 3.7 per cent of the students had been bullied at university at least occasionally. Of those who were bullied at university, 84.6 per cent reported that they had been bullied in junior high school as well, and 80.8 per cent reported that they had been victimized in high school; 73 per cent had been victims of bullying at both school levels. Being a stable victim from junior high school to high school and then to university was more characteristic for male than female students (100 per cent of males, 64.7 per cent of females).

Furthermore, a nationally representative sample of 5,086 university students in the University Student Health Survey 2008 in Finland revealed that 51 per cent of those individuals who had bullied their fellow students during higher education had also bullied their schoolmates. While 47 per cent of those who had been victimized during their higher education had previously been subjected to school bullying (Pörhölä 2011a). It is worth noting that those who bully at school are most likely to continue to engage in various kinds of abusive behaviours in their social relationships. Particularly males who bully at school have been shown to have a heightened risk for sexual harassment (DeSouza and Ribeiro 2005; Pellegrini 2002), and dating violence (Connolly et al. 2000; Pepler et al. 2002).

Preliminary research also exists to link experiences involving bullying at school with continued exposure in the workplace. Smith, Singer, Hoel and Cooper (2003) conducted a retrospective study in which 5,288 British working adults reported on whether they had been bullied at school and whether they were being bullied in their workplace, and found a clear relationship between having been bullied at school and being bullied in their workplace. Those who had been in both roles at school, bullying others and simultaneously being victimized, were even more likely to be bullied as adults at work.

As a social problem, taking place between individuals in their interaction processes, bullying can have serious negative effects on the developmental courses of the involved individuals’ peer relationships. Being victimized by the majority of one’s classmates and having only a minority of defenders among them, which is often the case (Hodges and Perry 1996; Salmivalli et al. 1996), can result in an inability to trust any of one’s peers and, consequently result in difficulty in establishing and sustaining friendships with them. Indeed, evidence shows that during their school years, victims of bullying tend to avoid social contacts and events (Crick and Grotpeter 1996; Slee 1994) and suffer from loneliness (Kochenderfer and Ladd 1996). For example, in a cross-cultural comparison in seven countries conducted in primary and secondary schools, Eslea et al. (2003) found that victims of bullying reported having the fewest friends and being left alone at playtimes most often, and those who occupied dual roles (bully-victims) reported similar experiences on a less frequent basis. Furthermore, a meta-analysis of 18 longitudinal studies conducted by Reijntjes et al. (2010) revealed significant associations between peer victimization and internalizing problems including anxiety, depression, withdrawal and loneliness among primarily middle school students over time.

However, those who bully also tend to have a range of difficulties in their peer relationships. Recent studies have indicated that children who bully consistently at a moderate or high rate from elementary through high school have peer relationship problems, including high conflict with peers, association with similarly aggressive peers, and susceptibility to negative peer pressure (Pepler et al. 2008). Further, a cross-cultural, cross-sectional survey including nationally representative samples from 25 countries indicated that bullies, victims and bully-victims report higher levels of health problems and poorer school adjustment than non-involved youth. Victims and bully-victims reported poorer emotional adjustment and relationships with classmates, whereas bullies and bully-victims reported greater alcohol use (Nansel et al. 2004). The nationally representative sample of Finnish university students also revealed significantly higher levels of substance abuse among those university students who had a history of bullying their schoolmates, as compared to victims and those without a history of being engaged in bullying processes during their schooling (Pörhölä 2011b).

In another study in Finland among seventh and eighth graders (Pörhölä 2008, 2009b), it was found that victimized students reported the most peer-relationship problems (e.g. having fewer or no close friends; not feeling valued and being actively disliked by peers; having few contacts with classmates; being unsuccessful in the establishment of peer relationships; and being afraid of peers in general). These problems occurred less for bullies, who usually had a group of close friends and companions, felt highly respected and valued by their peers, and found it easy to establish social relationships with equals, although they were also simultaneously afraid of losing their friends and, except for their best friends, were also poorly integrated with the rest of their schoolmates. Finally, individuals uninvolved in bullying reported the highest quality in their peer relationships and acceptance in peer communities.

Previous studies have revealed that even in their later lives, former victims of school bullying tend to have difficulties in maintaining friendships, suffer from loneliness and display lowered levels of self-esteem (Schäfer et al. 2004). Further, victims of bullying have been found to have a tendency to anticipate negative evaluation and experience high levels of anxiety in social situations (Storch et al. 2003; Storch and Masia-Warner 2004). Young people victimized by their peers in adolescence also still tend to have negative perceptions of their peers’ behaviour toward them in young adulthood (Salmivalli and Isaacs 2005). This set of peer relationship problems might partly explain formerly victimized individuals’ lower levels of trust and satisfaction in their friendships during young adulthood (Jantzer et al. 2006). In the following sections, two theories will be discussed to examine how individuals’ interpersonal relationships with other peer group members in childhood, adolescence and young adulthood affect thei...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Table Of Contents
• Bullying Among University Students
• IOverview
• IIThe student experience
• IIIThe nature of bullying at university
• IVThe social context of bullying at university
• VInterventions and policies
• VIReflections
• Index