Bullying: young children's roles, social status, and prevention programmes

ABSTRACT

Bullying in schools has been identified as a serious and complex worldwide problem associated with young children's victimization. Research studies indicate the frequency and effects of bullying among young children. The effects seem to be across-the-board for both bullies and victims, who are at risk of experiencing emotional, social, and academic difficulties. When preschool children first enter school, they become social members of a peer group. Preschool is the first context outside the home environment where young children encounter social problems when they interact with peers and become exposed to bullying behaviours. The purpose of this review is to present current empirical evidence about the nature and distinctive facet of bullying among preschool children. Studies trace the development of preschool bullying and its pervasiveness. This review describes young children's participation in bullying including their different roles, social status, and prevention programmes.

KEYWORDS:

• Bully
• victim
• peer relationships
• intervention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Olivia N. Saracho is a professor of education in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership at the University of Maryland. She is editor of the Contemporary Perspectives in Early Childhood Education series (Information Age). Two recent volumes in this series are Handbook of research methods in early childhood education: Research methodologies (Volume I) and Handbook of research methods in early childhood education: Review of research methodologies (Volume II). In addition, she co-edited the Handbook of Research on the Education of Young Children (Routledge/Taylor & Francis). She has conducted research and written numerous articles in several areas. She has published several books and worked with different publishers including Routledge/Taylor and Francis, Lawrence Erlbaum, Wadsworth, Information Age Publishing, State University of New York Press, Teachers College, Allyn and Bacon, and Pearson.

Notes

1. Peer nominations are used to assess the children's popularity. Children identify or rank children in their peer group based on some factor (e.g. rank favourite and least favourite playmates). Popularity status is determined based on the high number of positive nominations (i.e. popular children), negative nominations (i.e. rejected children), or a low count of both positive and negative nominations (i.e. neglected children).