Espelage And Swearer 2003 Study

. Bullying behaviors are influenced by many factors including demographic variables, family, peers, and aggression. In 2000, Espelage et al. tested sex, grade, race, price of lunch, and poverty status as demographic variables. In their study, only sex was associated with bullying behavior, with males reporting more participation than females (2000). Nansel et al.’s study in 2001 shows the same results with respect to sex as a demographic variable, with males bullying and being bullied more than females. However, they also found some differences in bullying behaviors with respect to race, that Hispanic youth reported slightly more moderate and frequent bullying than other races, and that black students reported being bullied slightly less often

In addition, it was found that many students who bully their peers in school also bully their siblings at home (Espelage & Swearer, 2003). Peer Influences. Relationships with peers influence bullying as well. Even perceptions of peer involvement in negative behaviors can affect how students behave (Espelage et al., 2000). Espelage and Swearer, in their 2003 study, suggest that students will spend their time with other students who are similar to them, called homophily. Furthermore, the subjects of the study formed peer groups with students who bullied at a similar frequency as they did (Espelage & Swearer, 2003). In addition, they suggested that the dominance theory can also explain adolescent bullying. The dominance theory is essentially the idea that in adolescence, particularly in middle school, children set up a hierarchy based on power or access to resources (Espelage & Swearer, 2003). Espelage and Swearer suggest that bullying is often a way that adolescents prove their dominance (2003). In environments that do not address bullying behaviors, Cohn and Canter state, “some children may bully their peers in an effort to ‘fit in’ even though the behavior may make them uncomfortable” (2003,

Proactive aggression is when a person seeks a target for a certain purpose, like when a bully targets a weaker victim unprovoked (Espelage & Swearer, 2003). Reactive aggression is when a bully targets a victim as a result of an earlier incident that angered the bully (Espelage & Swearer, 2003). Overt, or direct, aggression includes physical or verbal bullying behaviors such as fighting, kicking, and name-calling, for example, and covert, or indirect, aggression includes a third-party through which the bullying occurs; it is not face-to-face, rather, it is social exclusion or rumor-spreading (Espelage & Swearer, 2003). Relational aggression is aggression or bullying that damages a relationship; it is when peer pressure is used to convince another person to participate in bullying either through verbal threats of social exclusion or even threats of physical harm, both of which serve to damage relationships (Espelage & Swearer, 2003). In a study by Crick and Nelson (2002), the researchers found that victims of physical bullying were mainly boys, while victims of relational (or psychological) bullying were mainly