Bullying as a public health issue

Abstract

Bullying is a widespread phenomena in schools and peer groups. Its main characteristics are intentionality, repeatedness and power imbalance. There is no proper Hungarian translation for the word bullying that implies some methodological concerns. Within the frame of the Health Behaviour in School Aged Children Study a qualitative validation study was carried out in students’ focus groups to assess their concepts and interpretation of bullying. Different large scale studies (e.g. HBSC, ESPAD or a national study led by the Educational Research and Development Institute) found somewhat different prevalence of bullying depending on the focus of the data collection, the applied methodology and the involved target groups: the prevalence of chronic victimization was found to be between 5% and 15%. The prevalence of occasional victimization and the involvement as a bystander is even higher. Bullying involvement has a strong impact on health: both victims and bullies have higher risk of mental health problems. The highest risk of psychological symptoms is in the bully-victims. The health impact is not only temporary, it effects both young adulthood and adulthood as well. Besides data collections, several prevention initiations are taking place too in Hungary.