Bullying victimization experiences among Belgrade high school students

Abstract

Bullying refers to intentional actions, repeated over time, that harm, intimidate, or humiliate another person and that occur within the context of an imbalance of power, either real or perceived, between the bully and the victim. Previous research suggests that age and gender differences in bullying may be dependent upon the specific type of bullying behavior measured. In general, the serious consequences of bullying impose the need for constant examination of this negative phenomenon. To examine the frequency of personal experience of bullying victimization among high school students, a survey was conducted on a sample of 243 Belgrade students (76.5% female), aged 14–19 (M = 16.5; SD = 1.1). The Delaware Bullying Victimization Scale (DBVS) was used to examine the frequency of personal experience of bullying victimization. The DBVS is a six-point Likert-type scale (1 – never; 6 – every day), which consists of a total of 16 items, which are further grouped into four subscales: Verbal, Physical, Social/Relational and Cyberbullying. A separate score is computed for each subscale (Verbal, Physical, Social/Relational, and Cyberbullying) and a total Bullying in School score is computed by summing the scores on the first three subscales (under the recommendation of the authors of the instrument). Internal reliability of the scale was high (α = .92). In general, it can be said that high school students very rarely experienced bullying victimization (M = 1.63; SD = .89). Verbal bullying victimization was the most common of all forms (M = 1.85; SD = 1.21), while cyberbullying was the least pronounced (M = 1.3; SD = .73). Male students more often than female students experienced verbal (t(242) = 3.21, p < .01, d = .53), physical (t(242) = 3.8, p < .01, d = .63), cyberbullying victimization (t(241) = 2.67, p = .01, d = .45), as well as bullying victimization in general (t(242) = 3.29, p < .01, d = .55). The student's age had weak positive correlations with the total score (r = 0.17, p = .01), but also with the scores on all subscales (except for the Physical bullying). Based on the obtained findings, it can be concluded that in the examined sample of high school students bullying victimization is not frequent, male students experience bullying victimization more often, and the frequency of bullying victimization increases with age. The results can serve as an initial insight and a starting point to further assessments of bullying and intervention planning.