Essay

BULLYING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, m G H SCHOOL, AND COLLEGE Mark S. Chapell, Stefanie L. Hasselman, Theresa Kitchin, Safiya N. Lomon, Kenneth W. Maclver, and Patrick L. Sarullo

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the continuity in being a bully, victim, or bully-victim from elementary school through college in 119 undergraduates. Of 25 who bullied in college, 18 (72%) had been bulHed in high school and elementary school. Of 26 bullies in college, 14 (53.8%) had been bullies in high school and elementary school. Of 12 bully-victims in college, 5 (41.6%) had been bullyvictims in high school and elementary school. There were significant positive correlations between being a bully in college, high school, and elementary school, and being bullied in college and high school, and high school and elementary school, and between being both a bully and victim in elementary school, a bully and victim in high school, and a bully and victim in college.

Research on bullying began in Europe in the 1970s, led by Dan Olweus (1978), who continues to be the foremost international authority on bullying. To date, almost all research on bullying done internationally and in the United States has focused on bullying in elementary school, middle school, and high school. A review of this research shows that bullying and victimization is most common in elementary school and becomes progressively less common by the end of high school (Nansel et al., 2001; Smith et al., 1999), with rates of bullied students decreasing from 14% of American 6th graders to only 2% of the 12th graders (Devoe et al., 2004). Chapell et al. (2004) explored bullying in college in a sample of 1,025 undergraduates, and found that bullying is common in college graduates from high school to college, vdth 18.5% of undergraduates reporting having been bullied by a student once or twice, 5% having been bulhed by students occasionally, and 1.1% very frequently. This finding is consistent with the growing empirical...