Introduction

Research on bullying has been conducted all over the world, however, little is known about bullying in the schools of India. Bullying is defined as the use of power and aggression repeated over a time period which is intended to harm, cause distress or control another. Bullying entails a relationship in which there is an imbalance in strength of power between the parties involved [1]. Direct bullying can include physical aggression (hitting, kicking) and verbal aggression (insults, harassment, threats). Covert or indirect bullying is also termed relational victimization is the manipulation of social relationships to hurt (gossiping, spreading rumors) or socially exclude the individual being victimized [1, 2].

Several countries have compared the prevalence of bullying by country and sex. Involvement in bullying has varied from a low of 5 to a high of 54 % across countries [3, 4]. The most frequent type of bullying reported is teasing and name calling, followed by hitting and kicking and other threats. Physical bullying is more common among boys than girls [1, 2, 4]. Boys are more likely to be perpetrators while girls are more likely to be victims [4] and experience indirect forms of bullying such as teasing [5]. Girls tend to use more indirect and subtle forms of harassment, including rumor spreading and social exclusion [5, 6]. Evidence indicates that chronic bullying and peer victimization can lead to a host of adverse psychosocial outcomes, including behavioral difficulties, loneliness, depression, poor academic performance, school avoidance, poor self esteem, psychosomatic complaints, and suicidal ideations [2, 7–12]. Bullying in childhood has long term adverse consequences and is documented to be a significant predictor of violence; poor health, wealth, and social-relationship outcomes in adulthood [13, 14].

Thus far, the large majority of studies on school bullying have been conducted in the majority world, whereas data from Asian countries, in general, and India, in particular remains limited. Few studies which have focused on overt aggression among school going Indian adolescents have found that violence is common among school children [15, 16]. Since adolescence is a critical time for developing a stable identity and social relationships difficulties with peer relationships, such as bullying, can have long term impact upon well being. Keeping this in view, the present study aimed to examine the prevalence of bullying and its behavioural, emotional, socio-economic and demographic correlates among Indian school going adolescents.

Material and Methods

This study was part of a larger project which examined the academic achievement correlates of adolescents. A total of 209 adolescents (Boys = 53.4 %) studying in grade 9th and 10th aged 13 to 16 y (Mean = 14.82, SD = 0.96) were recruited from Government and Private schools of Chandigarh, a city in north India. The study was approved by the Institute Ethics committee. Written informed consent was taken from all students. Consent was also taken from the Principals of the schools surveyed. Parents were sent information about the project and no parent refused permission for their child to be included in the study. The sample size of 202 was calculated based upon the expected prevalence of 25 % bullying in our population, allowing a 5 % of precision error with a confidence level of 90 %.

Students were asked four questions to assess whether they were bullies: “Have you hit, kicked, pushed, or shoved another student; called other students names or made fun of, or teased him or her in a hurtful way; spread lies about other students; extorted money or things from other students”? All responses were recorded on a three point scale: “never/rarely,” “sometimes” (once or twice in a month), “usually/always” (several times in a month). The student was classified as a bully if the respondent chose “sometimes,” “usually/always”. Physical or direct victimization was measured by one question “have you been hit, kicked, pushed, or shoved around by another student at school?” Verbal victimization was assessed by the question: “have you been called names, made fun of, or teased in a hurtful way?” Relational bullying was measured by the question; “have other students told lies or spread false rumors about you and tried to make others dislike you?” Finally, material victimization was measured by the question “whether your money or things been taken away from you or damaged in some ways?” The student was classified as a victim if the respondent chose “sometimes,” “usually/always” on any one of the above question. Students who reported being victimized were asked additional questions related to the place of bullying; number of children who bullied them; who were the children who bullied them; whether they had reported it; and whether the school or parents had intervened. Students who met the criteria for being both a bully and victim were classified as bully-victims. This measure of bullying perpetration and categorization of bullying at a frequency of “sometimes” or greater has been used in several previous studies [17]. Children who did not meet the criteria for either bullies or victims were classified as controls and served as the comparison group.

Self esteem was measured by the Indian adaptation of the Piers Harris Children’s Self Concept Scale (CSCS) [18]. It consists of 80 statements to which one has to respond “Yes” or “No”. Responses are coded in a manner that higher scores indicate a more positive self concept. The scale yields a total score and six sub scale scores: behavior; intellectual and school status; physical appearance; anxiety; popularity; and happiness–satisfaction.

The Youth self report measure (11–17 y) of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was used to assess emotional and behavioral difficulties [19]. It consists of 25 statements which are categorized into five subscales: emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, peer relationship problems, and pro-social behavior. Students have to respond on a three point scale “not true”, “somewhat true” or “certainly true” on the basis of their behavior in last 6 mo. A total difficulties behavior score is computed by combining all scales except the pro-social behaviour scale.

Students’ grades were collected from report cards from school teachers and the total marks obtained in the last examination were converted to Z scores. Students were categorized into three groups: “below average” (scoring −0.66 SD below mean); average (scores between ±0.66 SD) and “above average” (academic scores +0.66 SD above mean).

The revised Kuppuswamy socio-economic status scale was used to assess the socio-economic status of the family [20].

Results

The overall prevalence of any kind of bullying behavior was 53 %. Out of the 209 students, nearly one-fifth (19.2 %) were victims of bullying. Sixteen percent reported being victims of direct bullying and had been physically assaulted in schools several times in a month. Name calling, rumor spreading, and forcibly taking money were reported by 33.7 %, 12.5 % and 7.2 % of the adolescents, respectively. Most of the peer victimization took place at schools in the classroom when the teacher was not present (73.6 %), during the recess period (41.4 %), in the hallways (33.3 %) and playgrounds (32 %). Majority (85.2 %) were bullied by their classmates. A small minority (3.8 %) of the victimized pupils had reported the bullying, primarily to their parents (34.8 %) or teachers (29.9 %). Thirteen percent of children reported being bullies. Calling names and threatening (89.9 %) was the most common reported bullying tactics used followed by physical bullying (25.9 %). Taking money or items from other children was reported by only a small minority (2.3 %). Nearly one-fifth (20.7 %) of the students reported being bully-victims. Victims of bullying (40 %) were significantly more likely to be afraid of coming to school as compared to other students (χ 2 = 8.38, P = 0.039).

Table 1 presents the frequencies of various forms of bullying and victimization by sex, age, socio-economic status, and academic achievement. Chi-square test showed an effect of gender on group membership. Male students were twice as likely as girls to be classified as bullies (17.1 % vs. 8.2 %) and 2.25 times as likely to be classified as bully-victims (27.9 % vs. 12.4 %) (Fig. 1). Moreover, boys were 6.58 times more likely to be victims of physical bullying as compared to girls (χ 2 = 19.85, P = 0.000). Girls, on the other hand, were 1.26 times more likely to be classified as victims (21.6 % vs. 17.1 %). There were, however, no significant differences by sex on relational, material, and verbal victimization. Boys were primarily bullied by boys whereas girls were bullied by both boys and girls. Bullying did not decline with age (χ 2 = 13.30, P = 0.039) and older children were 7.08 times more likely to be perpetrators of bullying. No significant differences emerged between groups with respect to socio-economic status (χ 2 = 2.69, P = 0.848).

Table 1 Prevalence of bullying and victimization by demographic, socio-economic characteristics and academic functioning
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Fig. 1
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Prevalence of bullying and victimization by gender

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Significant effect for bullying status and academic achievement was found (χ 2 = 13.10, P = 0.041). Bully-victims were the most likely to have academic functioning difficulties, while the controls and bullies had relatively better school grades. Figure 2 presents the standardized means of academic scores for the four groups of students.

Fig. 2
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Group means on standardized scores on total marks obtained

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Significant differences emerged on the psychosocial outcome measures by bullying status. Table 2 presents the results for self concept and the standardized total self concept scores by bullying group, respectively. Bullying status was significantly related to the total self concept scores (F = 5.12, P = 0.002). Victimized adolescents reported the lowest scores on total self concept and on the sub scale of anxiety (F = 5.32, P = 0.002), while the bully-victims had the lowest scores on behavior (F = 3.65, P = 0.014), popularity (F = 4.73, P = 0.003), and happiness (F = 3.24, P = 0.023). It is noteworthy that the controls and bullies had relatively higher self concept scores and no differences between these two groups emerged on any of its sub scales or overall score.

Table 2 Comparative means and standard deviations (in parenthesis) on self concept scale and its domains by group status
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Fig. 3
figure 3

Group means on standardized scores of total difficulties scores on SDQ

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Table 3 and Fig. 3 present the results for strength and difficulties scores and standardized total difficulties scores by bullying group, respectively. Compared with control students, victims had a significantly higher risk for emotional problems, hyperactivity, and conduct problems. Bully-victims had a higher risk for conduct problems and hyperactivity as compared to controls. Finally, bullies had higher risk for hyperactivity and conduct problems as compared to control students. Interestingly, there were no differences between the groups on the sub scale of peer problems. Behaviorally, the bully-victims were the most impaired group.

Table 3 Comparative means and standard deviations (in parenthesis) on strength and difficulties self report scores by group status
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Discussion

The study utilized a cross-sectional design to examine the prevalence of school bullying and to investigate the behavioral, emotional, socio-economic and demographic correlates of bullying behaviors among Indian school going adolescents. The prevalence of any kind of bullying behavior was 53 % which is among the highest reported from any country. For instance, Nansel et al. reported that involvement in bullying varied dramatically across 25 European countries, ranging from 9 to 54 %, with the lowest rates being reported from Sweden and England and the highest rates from Lithuania, Greenland and Germany [3]. The few studies available from developing countries on bullying have reported extremely high prevalence rates of bullying [12, 21]. For example, Chen and Astor reported that 68 % of the junior high school students surveyed in Taiwan were involved as perpetrators in at least one type of violent behavior [21]. The prevalence rates indicate that bullying and being bullied among adolescents is not uncommon in Indian schools and the rates are as high, if not higher, as reported from the developed countries.

Consistent with findings from Western studies, the present results also show that the male students engaged in aggressive behavior at significantly higher rates than females. In a cross national comparative study of 40 countries, estimates of bullying were higher for boys and ranged from 8.6 to 45.2 %, and among girls the rates ranged from 4.8 to 35.8 % [4]. The present results support previous studies that physical bullying and direct aggression is more common among boys while rates of victimization are higher for girls than boys across countries [2, 4, 6, 7]. However, the authors did not find that teasing and exclusion was more often associated with girls’ behavior as has been found in other studies [2]. It is noteworthy that in a large meta-analysis, gender differences in social aggression were not found to be marked [6]. Possibly, gender differences may be less clear for social than physical aggression among adolescents [22].

Significant differences emerged between the four groups of students on the psychosocial outcome measures. Victims of bullying were emotionally distressed and reported the highest number of emotional symptoms on the SDQ. They also reported poor self concept scores which were significantly lower than the scores of the noninvolved children and the perpetrators of bullying. Research indicates that adolescents who are victims of bullying often experience higher rates of psychosocial problems as compared to neutral peers including elevated levels of social isolation, depression, anxiety, and increased self-harm behaviors and suicidal ideations [10, 11]. Victims also reported feeling fearful at school and as a result may start to avoid school [7, 9]. Avoidance behaviors can adversely impact academic achievement and lead to further exacerbation of being victimized.

It must be noted that low self worth may both be a cause and a result of being bullied and weaken victims’ position in the peer hierarchy and make them more prone to be bullied. In this context, it may be noted that a meta-analysis of 18 longitudinal studies found that internalizing problems function as both antecedents and consequences of peer victimization and these reciprocal influences may trigger a vicious cycle of victimization and increasing the risk for chronic targeting and psychosocial difficulties over time [23].

The bullies, on the other hand, were more likely to report more hyperactive and conduct problems than the controls. It appears that bullies are more likely to display externalizing rather than internalizing problems as compared to noninvolved children [1, 3, 8, 24]. The high self concept and lack of psychosocial distress displayed by the bullies can be understood in light of findings that bullies are often perceived as popular and “cool” by their peers, and are motivated to denigrate others students in order to attain a dominant social position [25, 26]. Moreover, adolescents may envy the bully’s aggressive and tough attitude [27].

The bully-victims were the most impaired group and showed elevated symptoms of both internalizing and externalizing problems and academic difficulties. Previous research indicates that bully-victims have a unique risk profile and are most vulnerable to both concurrent and long term mental health problems [2, 25, 28]. Research in Asia have noted an association between poor school engagement and school violence and suggested that Asian students as compared to Western students are more reactive to poor academic performance [29]. In fact, violence in school can also be viewed as reactions to frustration and failure over academic performance [30, 31].

The present study has a number of strengths. It is the first study to have examined bullying and victimization in relation to self reported self concept and emotional and behavioral problems among school going adolescents in India. The present findings revealed that in general the behavioral profiles of bullies and victims in India are similar to those reported in studies from developed countries. Limitations of the study include its cross sectional design which makes inferences about causality difficult. Moreover, the authors have used only self-report measures for assessing psychosocial outcome; supplementing this information from other sources such as from parents and teachers would have been useful.

Bullying and victimization is a universal phenomenon and widespread among Indian youth. The present findings underscore the need for understanding peer conflict, as perpetrating and experiencing repetitive aggression at the hands of classmates’ leads to a host of adverse behavioral and psycho-social outcomes. Bullying intervention programs which emphasize improving academic performance and self-esteem may help to attenuate some of the psychological distress that victims experience at school. The current findings point to the urgent need to educate the school authorities, mental health personnel, and community at large regarding school violence and design intervention programs which help in reducing the wide spread prevalence of bullying. Interventions are also needed to help pediatricians recognize early signs of peer violence and take preventive actions to address school aggression.