Responding to Bullying

What Works?

WENDY CRAIGa, DEBRA PEPLERb and JULIE BLAISa

a
Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada and
b
York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACT Children who are bullied are often told to ‘solve the prob-
lems themselves’; however, when bullying is repeated over time, it
becomes increasingly difficult for victimized children to stop the
torment because of their relative lack of power. We examine the ways
in which children respond to bullying and their evaluations of the effec-
tiveness of various strategies in reducing their bullying problems. One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-two Canadian children and youth,
ranging in age from 4- to 19-years-old (mean 12.6, SD 2.4) responded to
a web-based questionnaire. Few respondents indicated that they were
motivated by public education campaigns or information about bully-
ing. Participants indicated they were motivated to do something to
stop bullying by their own need to exert control and be assertive and by
their emotional reactions to bullying. A significant group of youth
responded that they did nothing to stop bullying. Finally, the longer
the bullying had been ongoing, the less effective students perceived
their own strategies. The results highlight the importance of adults
supporting students. Similarly, it is important to provide children and
youth with strategies that are effective, as they are most likely to
implement strategies that are only going to increase the victimization
over time.

KEY WORDS: aggression; bullying; coping; strategies; victimization

Bullying is a form of abuse at the hands of peers that can take different
forms at different ages. Bullying is defined as repeated aggression in
which there is a power differential (Juvonen and Graham, 2001; Olweus,
1991; Pepler and Craig, 2000). Two elements of bullying are key to
understanding its complexity. First, bullying is a form of aggressive
behaviour imposed from a position of power: children who bully have
more power than the children they victimize. This power can derive
from a physical advantage such as size and strength, but also through

School Psychology International Copyright © 2007 SAGE Publications (Los

Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore), Vol. 28(4): 465–477.
DOI: 10.1177/0143034307084136

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a social advantage such as a dominant social role (e.g. teacher com-

pared to a student), higher social status in a peer group (e.g. popular
versus rejected student), strength in numbers (e.g. group of children
bullying a solitary child) or through systemic power (e.g. racial or
cultural groups, sexual minorities, economic disadvantage, disability).
Power can also be achieved by knowing another’s vulnerability (e.g.
obesity, stuttering, learning problem, sexual orientation, family back-
ground) and using that knowledge to cause distress. The second key
element is that bullying is repeated over time. With each repeated
bullying incident, the power relations become consolidated: as children
bully and repeatedly cause distress for others, they increase in power
over time, whereas the children who are being victimized lose power in
that relationship.
Bullying can take many forms. It can be physical (e.g. hits, pushes,
tripping, spitting), verbal (e.g. threats, insults, put-downs), social (e.g.
social exclusion, malicious gossip) or cyber-bullying (e.g. threats,
insults, demeaning messages spread through the internet or cell
phone). Bullying may be direct (i.e. face-to-face) or indirect (i.e. causing
distress without confrontation, such as malicious rumours). All of these
forms of bullying can be harmful to another’s sense of self and relation-
ships within the peer group. Through our research, we have come to
understand bullying as a destructive relationship problem: children
who bully are learning to use power and aggression to control and
distress others; children who are victimized become increasingly
powerless and unable to defend themselves from this form of abuse at
the hands of peers. Children who are bullied are often told to ‘solve the
problems themselves’; however, when bullying is repeated over time, it
becomes increasingly difficult for victimized children to stop the
torment because of their relative lack of power compared to the child or
group of children doing the bullying (O’Connell et al., 1999). In this
article, we examine the ways in which children respond to bullying and
their evaluations of the effectiveness of various strategies in reducing
their bullying problems.
In Canada, the rates of bullying and victimization are considerably
higher than in many other countries. In the recent World Health Orga-
nization (WHO) Health Behaviours in School-Aged Children (HBSC)
survey, Canada ranked a disappointing 26th and 27th out of 35 coun-
tries on measures of bullying and victimization, respectively (Craig and
Harel, 2004). Across all categories of bullying or victimization, Canada
consistently ranked at or below the middle of the international group.
Among 13-year-olds, 17.8 percent of the boys and 15.1 percent of the
girls reported being frequently victimized. Although a substantial
number of children and youth are occasionally victimized, our longi-
tudinal research shows that a small group of children and youth

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 Craig et al.: Responding to Bullying

experience frequent and prolonged victimization at the hands of their

peers (Goldbaum et al., 2003). These are the children who experience a
wide range of problems and are in need of focused support to enable
them to move on from these abusive interactions with peers and to find
healthy relationships in adolescence and beyond (Pepler and Craig,
2000).
There is reason to be concerned for the well-being of students who
are chronically victimized because of the prevalence of associated
physical and mental health problems.
Victimized children are at high risk for physical symptoms: they are
1.3 to 3.4 times more likely to report headaches and 1.3 to 3.3 times
more likely to report stomach aches than non-victimized children (Due
et al., 2005; Williams et al., 1996). Victimized children also suffer
psychosomatic symptoms: they are 1.3 to 5.2 times more likely to report
difficulty sleeping (Due et al., 2005) and 1.2 to 2.4 times more likely to
wet their bed (Williams et al., 1996) than non-victimized children.
Victimized children are 1.6 to 6.8 times more likely to report depressive
symptoms than children uninvolved in bullying (Due et al., 2005;
Kaltiala-Heino et al., 1999; Williams et al., 1996). The psychosocial
difficulties that victimized children experience spill over into their
school experiences: they are at high risk for disliking and avoiding
school; one-fifth to one-quarter of frequently victimized children report
bullying as the reason for staying home (Rigby, 2003).
In this article, we examine children’s reports of strategies for
responding to bullying and their ratings of the effectiveness of these
strategies as a foundation for recommendations to understand the
challenges that victimized children experience and to develop appro-
priate supports for them. Hunter and Boyle (2004) drew upon the work
of Lazarus to examine stress and coping within bullying. They pro-
posed a model that comprises both person characteristics (e.g. age,
gender), as well as situation characteristics (e.g. duration and frequen-
cy of victimization). In the present analyses we consider children’s
strategies in response to bullying based on this person-situation model.
Our observational research indicates that children who respond
emotionally, either submissively or aggressively, to bullying will likely
experience prolonged bullying (Mahady-Wilton et al., 2000). Con-
versely, responding with problem-solving strategies (e.g. active
assertiveness, avoidance) to bullying was associated with de-escalation
within the bullying episodes. Kochenderfer-Ladd (2004) found similar
patterns: children’s angry and embarrassed responses predicted
revenge seeking which, in turn, was associated with increases in
victimization. Conversely, children’s responses that focused on conflict
resolution were associated with reductions in victimization. She found
that when children were fearful, they were motivated to seek advice for

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victimization, which, in turn, predicted a resolution of the bullying

problem and fewer internalizing problems.
In a study of strategies to cope with bullying, Camodeca and
Goossens (2005) found that children most frequently chose assertive-
ness. There were gender differences in the favoured responses: girls
chose assertive strategies more often than boys. There are some indica-
tions that seeking social support may not be equally effective for girls
and boys. Kochenderfer-Ladd and Skinner (2004) found that seeking
support for victimization served as a protective factor for girls’ social
problems, but for victimized boys this strategy was related to lower
peer preference. The strategies chosen by children to respond to bully-
ing may also differ by age. Camodeca and Goossens (2005) found that
younger children preferred nonchalance more than older children, who
were more likely to choose retaliation. Situation factors have also been
found to relate to responses to victimization. In a study of children
accessing a Kids Help Line, Martin and Gillies (2004) found that the
longer bullying had gone on, the more difficult it was for a student to
use disengagement strategies such as denial and avoidance.
In the present study, we have addressed four questions related to
children’s responses to bullying, with a consideration of both person
and situation variables, as follows:
(1) What factors influence youths’ decision to do something about a
bullying problem?
(2) What strategies do youth use to stop bullying?
(3) What strategies do youth perceive to be effective in stopping bully-
ing?
(4) Is the effectiveness of strategies related to the length of time bully-
ing has been ongoing?

Methods
Data for this article were collected through a survey that was available
online at the bullying.org website. The survey featured six demo-
graphic questions related to age, gender, grade, province/state, country
and size of city. There were six questions about the nature of bullying
and the child’s response to the bullying:
(1) How were you bullied?
(2) When did this bullying take place?
(3) How long did this bullying go on?
(4) Who did this to you?
(5) What made you decide that you had to deal with your bullying situ-
ation?
(6) What did you do and how well did this work?

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The web-based questionnaire is available from the primary author.

For this article, we analysed the data for 1,852 Canadian respondents
under the age of 20, with a range from 4- to 19-years-old (mean 12.6,
SD 2.4). There were 66 respondents in the childhood stage (aged 4–8);
1,209 respondents in the late childhood/early adolescence stage (aged
9–13); 452 respondents in the middle adolescence stage (aged 14–16)
and 125 respondents in the late adolescence stage (aged 17–19). There
were 653 boys (35 percent) and 1,169 girls (63 percent) in the sample.

Results

Types of victimization
Participants were asked to identify how they had been victimized. Chi-
square analyses were conducted to examine for gender differences in
the type of victimization. Boys were significantly more likely to report
being victimized by physical bullying (44 percent of boys versus 32
percent of girls, p < 0.01) and by harm to their property (27 percent of
boys versus 21 percent of girls, p < 0.01) than were girls. There was a
high incidence of verbal bullying, with girls reporting significantly
more victimization by this form of bullying than boys (69 percent of
boys versus 80 percent of girls, p < 0.001). Girls were also significantly
more likely to report social victimization (42 percent of boys versus 63
percent of girls, p < 0.001) and cyber-bullying (16 percent of boys versus
22 percent of girls, p < 0.001) than were boys.

Duration of bullying
Respondents were asked about the length of time that the identified
bullying situation had gone on. Significantly more boys (40 percent)
reported that bullying lasted less than a week than did girls (28 per-
cent), p < 0.01. Approximately the same percentage (23 percent) of boys
and girls indicated having been bullied for several years.

Relationship with child who bullied

Both boys and girls were most likely to report being victimized by
someone of their own gender and by someone of their own age. When
asked about how close they were to the child who had bullied them,
very few boys and girls indicated being bullied by someone they did not
know (12 percent and 8 percent, respectively). Boys and girls reported
being bullied by someone they knew a little or by someone in their peer
group with similar percentages (30 percent and 20 percent, respective-
ly). Girls, however, were more likely to indicate being bullied by
someone they would call a friend than were boys (30 percent of girls
versus 20 percent of boys, p < 0.01).

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Motivation for responding to bullying

In answering the question about what made them deal with their
bullying situation, respondents indicated several reasons, which were
coded into major themes such as: advice of someone else; escalation;
education about bullying; an emotional reaction to the bullying;
academic consequences; constancy and pervasiveness; health conse-
quences; damage to self-worth; assertiveness; altruism for others;
social repercussions or nothing. For both boys and girls, escalation of
bullying, emotional reactions and assertiveness were cited most fre-
quently as reasons for doing something about bullying. Girls were
significantly (p < 0.01) more likely to cite these motivations to stop
bullying compared to boys. For example, 20 percent of girls reported
that escalation was the motivating factor compared to 12 percent of
boys. Similarly girls were more likely to cite emotional reasons (18
percent of girls versus 9 percent of boys, p < 0.01) and assertiveness (17
percent of girls versus 11 percent of boys, p < 0.01), compared to boys.
We also examined whether the motivation for addressing bullying
problems varied by the length of time that the bullying had been on-
going. Chronically victimized children, compared to those victimized
for a shorter period to time, were more likely to be motivated by: aca-
demic consequences, altruism, constancy of bullying, emotional
reactions, escalating of bullying, damage to health, damage to self-
worth and social repercussions (all p values < 0.01).

Strategies used to respond to bullying

Respondents were given a list of 12 strategies that they may have used
to deal with their bullying situation and asked to indicate which of
these strategies they had attempted. A substantial number of respon-
dents indicated not having done anything about the bullying they were
experiencing (20 percent), while a comparable number reported
attempting one strategy. Approximately 10 percent of students indi-
cated attempting two to four strategies while less than 10 percent
attempted five or more strategies. Boys were more likely to endorse
none or one strategy to stop bullying than were girls, p < 0.01. Con-
versely, girls were more likely to endorse three to six strategies to stop
bullying, p < 0.01.
Almost half of the respondents indicated that they had tried to ignore
the bullying, which was the most frequently endorsed strategy. Girls
were more likely to report getting help to stop the bullying, or to telling
someone about the bullying incident, including a parent, sibling, school
staff or other student. Boys, on the other hand, were more likely to use
physical aggression, humour or revenge to stop the bullying. The per-
centages of students reporting each strategy are presented in Figure 1.
We found that with age, the reports of using aggression increased

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100
90 Boys

80 Girls
70
60
Percent

50
40
30
20
10
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Figure 1 Strategies used by boys and girls

boys’ and girls’ ratings of strategy effectiveness (p < 0.01). Older chil-
dren were also more likely to report using passive avoidance strategies,
such as ignoring and not doing anything, to stop the bullying compared
to younger children, p < 0.01. It may be that older children have more
confidence or more opportunity than younger children to keep their
distance from those who are bullying them.
We were able to test whether children used different strategies to
respond to bullying, depending on their relationship to the child who
was bullying. As closeness of the relationship with the bullying child
increases, students were less likely to report doing anything to stop the
bullying, p < 0.01, likely for fear of losing those whom they consider to
be friends. Students were also less likely to use aggression to stop
bullying when they were being bullied by someone they do not know,
which may relate to their concerns for safety, p < 0.01.

Perceived effectiveness of strategies

Respondents rated the effectiveness of the strategies they had used on
a scale of 1–3, with 1 indicating that it did not work at all and 3 indi-
cating that it worked really well. The effectiveness ratings of the
strategies are presented in Figure 2. Anova indicated that girls were

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 School Psychology International (2007), Vol. 28(4)

3.0

2.8 Boys

2.6 Girls

2.4
Effectiveness rating

2.2

2.0

1.8

1.6

1.4

1.2

1.0
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Figure 2 Boys’ and girls’ ratings of strategy effectiveness

more likely than boys to indicate that telling school staff was effective,
p < 0.01. Boys, on the other hand, identified verbal and physical aggres-
sion, humour, revenge, distracting the bullying and ignoring the bully
as being more effective than did girls (all p values < 0.01).

When bullying does not stop

When bullying continues, the power differential between the child who
is bullying and the child being victimized augments, making it increas-
ingly difficult for the victimized child to escape the torment. We
examined the survey responses for indications of difficulties experi-
enced by victimized children with prolonged duration. Consistent with
the difficulty stopping the bullying, we found that the number of
strategies that a child indicated having tried increased with the dura-
tion of bullying. The means for the number of strategies tried in
addressing bullying were: for the duration of experiencing bullying less
than one week of bullying (M = 2.5), for less than one month (M = 2.5),
for all term (M = 3.2), for one year (M = 3.7) and for more than a year
(M = 3.8).

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 Craig et al.: Responding to Bullying

We also examined whether the perceived effectiveness of the strate-

gies related to the length of time that bullying had been going on. The
respondents’ effectiveness ratings decreased with the length of time
they reported having been bullied. For example, the mean effectiveness
rating of the strategy to address bullying for children who had experi-
enced bullying for less than one week was M = 2.2 compared to M = 1.6
for those who had experienced bullying problems for over one year.

Summary and recommendations

Children who are victimized by their peers can experience a wide
range of problems, particularly if the victimization is prolonged. The
World Health Organization survey revealed that among 13-year-old
Canadian children (the average age of children in this survey), one in
every six boys and one in every seven girls report being frequently
victimized (Craig and Harel, 2004). In a recent volume on the leading
international bullying interventions, the rates of victimization showed
a greater improvement through the bullying programs than the rates
of bullying for several of the programs (Pepler et al., 2004). Although
these findings are encouraging, there is still considerable room for
improvement in our abilities to support and protect victimized chil-
dren. With this survey, we have attempted to glean insights from the
‘real world’ experts, the children and youth themselves. We have
focused on four questions to highlight the nature and effectiveness of
children’s attempts to stop bullying
When asked to identify what factors influenced their decision to take
action about a bullying problem, the children’s and youths’ responses
indicated that they were not motivated by the types of concerns that
adults might have for them in terms of the consequences of victimiza-
tion, such as increased academic difficulties, health problems, a
decrease in self worth or social isolation. Few respondents indicated
that they were motivated by public education campaigns or informa-
tion about bullying. Instead, the children and youth who participated
in this survey indicated that they were motivated to do something to
stop bullying by their own need to exert control and be assertive (‘I
just had to do something by myself to stop it’) and by their emotional
reactions to bullying (‘It made me so mad’). The respondents indicated
that they were also motivated to do something to stop bullying when it
started to escalate or when it became a constant presence in their lives.
As we attempt to support children who are victimized and intervene
early to redirect the negative power that children who bully are exert-
ing, early intervention is recommended. Therefore, considerable efforts
need to be made to encourage children who are being victimized to
come forward before the situation escalates and before the emotional

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burden of bullying becomes too great. There are opportunities to sup-

port the assertive behaviours of victimized children (Smith and Sharp,
1994); however, the burden of changing the dynamics in bullying
should not rest with the victimized child.
When asked about the strategies that they use to stop bullying, a
significant group of youth responded that they did nothing. They were
more likely to say they did nothing when they were victimized by a
friend compared to a non-friend. Interestingly girls were more likely to
use relational strategies (i.e. telling a friend, telling an adult) com-
pared to boys who were more likely to use confrontational strategies
such as physical aggression or revenge. Finally, with increasing age,
youth were more likely to used avoidance strategies. In addition, the
longer the bullying had been ongoing, the less effective students per-
ceived their strategies.
The good news is that for girls who endorse utilizing relationship
strategies, they believe them to be effective. The bad news is that
boys believe their aggressive and confrontational strategies are also
effective. The research has found that the strategies primarily sup-
ported and endorsed by boys as effective are not – in fact they make the
bullying problems more severe and prolong (Mahady-Wilton et al.,
2000).
Taken together, these results highlight the importance of adults sup-
porting students. The power differential in bullying makes it very
challenging and intimidating for children to stand up to their aggres-
sors. Unless adults support children and youth, students are likely to
do nothing and gain a sense of helplessness about their bullying experi-
ences over time. It is important for all adults interacting with children
to be aware of the signs of bullying, respond to children and youth when
they report bullying experiences and support children who are victim-
ized during and after the incident. If adults do not protect youth, the
risk is that the children will come to believe they deserve those experi-
ences and become more passive and accepting of the abuse they
experience over time.
Similarly, it is important to provide children and youth with strate-
gies that are effective, boys in particular, as they are most likely to
implement strategies that are only going to increase the victimization
over time (Mahady-Wilton et al., 2000). Students who are victimized
require support in developing the knowledge to recognize healthy rela-
tionships and the skills to interact in an effective assertive manner or
to engage the support they may require. The results from this survey
indicate that even in close friendships when bullying occurs, students
do not or are afraid to assert themselves appropriately. Adults need to
provide guidance, feedback and ongoing support in developing these
skills in children and youth.

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 Craig et al.: Responding to Bullying

In summary, bullying is a problem for a significant number of

students and it takes many different forms. Understanding how
students respond to bullying problems provides insight for the develop-
ment of intervention and prevention programs aimed at decreasing
bullying. Alarmingly, male students are engaging in ineffective strate-
gies and believe that these solutions are effective. In addition, students
report becoming less effective in responding to bullying the longer the
bullying has been occurring. These results point to the importance of
adults. Children’s positive peer relationships depend on positive rela-
tionships with adults. Teachers, parents and other adults involved in
children’s lives not only model relationship skills and attitudes, but
they are also active in creating contexts in which children and youth
interact. Children will only learn positive relationship skills and atti-
tudes if they observe and interact with adults who exemplify these
elements of positive relationships in their interactions with children
and with other adults. Adults are responsible for creating positive
environments that promote children’s capacity and competencies for
healthy relationships. They are also responsible for minimizing con-
texts for negative peer interactions. By observing the interpersonal
dynamics in children’s lives, adults can construct social experiences in
ways that protect and support the development of healthy relation-
ships and minimize the likelihood of bullying and harassment.

Note
This article was funded by National Crime Prevention Strategy and presented
as part of a symposium at the American Society of Criminology, November
2005.

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 Craig et al.: Responding to Bullying

Wendy Craig is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at

Queen’s University. Her research program focuses on three areas:
(1) the development of healthy relationships; (2) the risk and protective
factors associated with bullying and victimization in family, peer, indi-
vidual, school and social relationships; and (3) aggression in females.
In recognition of her work on bullying and victimization, Dr Craig won
an Investigator Award from the Canadian Institute of Health
Research. She has published widely on the topics of bullying and
victimization, peer processes, sexual harassment and aggression in
girls. She was editor of a volume on childhood social development. As a
Canadian representative, Dr Craig works with the World Health
Organization and UNICEF conducting research and promoting
healthy relationships. Dr Craig is co-leading PREVNet (Promoting
Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network), a national strategy
to stop bullying in Canada. Address: Department of Psychology, 62
Arch Street, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada.
Email: craigw@post.queensu.ca

Debra J. Pepler is a Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology

at York University and a Senior Executive Member of the LaMarsh
Centre for Research on Violence and Conflict Resolution. At the
Hospital for Sick Children, Dr Pepler holds the title of Senior Associate
Scientist. She conducts research on children at risk. Her major
research program examines the antisocial behaviour of children and
adolescents, particularly in the school and peer contexts. She has been
honoured for this research with a Distinguished Research Professor-
ship at York University, the Contribution to Knowledge Award from
the Psychology Foundation of Canada and the Educator of the Year
Award from Phi Delta Kappa (Toronto). Together with Dr Wendy
Craig, Dr Pepler is leading a national network, PREVNet (Promoting
Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network), a Networks of
Centres of Excellence – New Initiative to promote safe and healthy
relationships for all Canadian children and youth (www.prevnet.ca).
Address: York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Email: pepler@yorku.ac

Julie Blais is currently a clinical doctoral student in psychology at

Queen’ University. Her research focuses on bullying, with a specific
emphasis on cyber-bullying and the consequences associated with
it. Address: Department of Psychology, 62 Arch Street, Queen’s Uni-
versity, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada.
Email: 0jb17@queensu.ca

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