Bullying behavior, youth's disease and intervention: which suggestions from the data for research on bullying in the Brazilian context?

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JPediatr(RioJ).2016;92(1):4---6

www.jped.com.br

EDITORIAL

Bullying

behavior,

youth’s

disease

and

intervention:

which

suggestions

from

the

data

for

research

on

bullying

in

the

Brazilian

context?

夽,夽夽

Comportamento

de

bullying,

doenc

¸as

na

juventude

e

intervenc

¸ão:

quais

são

as

sugestões

das

pesquisas

sobre

bullying

no

contexto

brasileiro?

Simona

C.S.

Caravita

a,∗

_,

_Barbara

_Colombo

b,c

a_Center_for_Research_on_Evolutionary_Dynamics_and_Educational_(CRIdee),_Department_of_Psychology,_Università_Cattolica delSacroCuore,Milano,Italy

b_Department_of_Psychology,_Università_Cattolica_del_Sacro_Cuore,_Milano,_Italy c_Education_and_Human_Studies,_Champlain_College,_Burlington,_United_States

Since the inﬂuential work by Dan Olweus,1 _bullying _has

emergedasamajorproblemofthesocietyalloverworldand

acrosssocieties. Theinternational literaturereports rates

ofchildrenandadolescentsinvolvedinbullyingindifferent

countriesranging from7%to43% for victimsandfrom5%

to44%forbullies.2_Moreover,_the_studies_agree_in

highlight-inghowbullyingconstitutesafactorofrisk forthehealth

aswellasthesocialandpsychologicaladjustmentofboth

thebulliedandthebullyingyouth.Childrenandadolescents

whosuffer victimization bypeerscan beaffected by

sev-eralhealth problems,includingphysical andpsychological

diseasesymptoms,both concurrently andprospectively.3,4

Likewise,thereisevidencethatbulliescanalsosufferfrom

depressionandotherdiseases,4_and_that_they_are_at_risk_of

externalizingbehaviorandinvolvementincriminalactivities

inlateadolescenceandadulthood.5

夽 _Please _cite_this _article _as:_Caravita _SC, _Colombo _B. _Bullying behavior,youth’sdiseaseandintervention:whichsuggestionsfrom thedataforresearchonbullyingintheBraziliancontext?JPediatr (RioJ).2016;92:4---6.

夽夽_See_paper_by_de_Oliveira_et_al._in_pages_32---9. ∗_{Corresponding}_author.

E-mail:simona.caravita@unicatt.it(S.C.S.Caravita).

Inadditiontobulliesandvictims,otherschool-and

class-mates participate inbullying byplaying different roles in

the phenomenon. They can act as helpers or reinforcers

of the bullies; a minority act asdefenders of the bullied

peers;otherpupilsserveaspassivebystanders,who

with-draw from the bullying situations by not taking side for

thebulliesor thevictims,henceindirectlyreinforcingthe

bullies’ behavior.6 _Being _involved _in _bullying _as _an _active

or passive bystander can alsoaffect psychological

adjust-ment during youth,because witnessing bullying has been

found toincrease the levelsof bystanders’distress.7 _This

framework,aswellasthehighcoststosocietyofbullying,

makesinvestigatingthephenomenon,anddeveloping

inter-ventionprogramsthatareabletoﬁghtbullyingspeciﬁcally

andeffectively,apriorityforanycountryinwhichbullying

isdetected.

Severalproposalsfortheanti-bullyinginterventionshave

beendeveloped,withdifferenttheoreticalapproachesand

different levels of effectiveness.8 _However, _all _of _them

recommendstartingfromanaccuratescreeningofthe

phe-nomenoninthecontextoffutureintervention.Indeed,one

ofthemainassumptionsforanti-bullyinginterventionisthat

bullying,incomparisontootherformsofaggressiveand

anti-socialbehaviors,hasahighercomplexity,whichneedstobe

investigatedinthespeciﬁccontexttobefoughteffectively.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jped.2015.11.002

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Bullyingbehavior,youth’sdiseaseandintervention 5

In thisframework,theoriginalityand theworthof the

paperbydeOliveiraetal.9_is_evident,_especially_considering

thescarcityofstudiesonbullyingatschoolinBrazil10_and,_in

abroaderperspective,inSouthAmerica.Thisstudyprovides

relevantdataontheprevalence ofbullies inapopulation

sampleof109,104eighth-gradepupils;20.8%ofthesample

reportedbullying behavior at school. These data indicate

ahighrateofbullyinginBrazilianschoolsincomparisonto

othercountries,anditcomesfromself-reportevaluationsby

theparticipants.Thisisimportantbecause,astheauthors

themselves consider, self-reports may have increased the

risk of under-estimating the prevalence of bullying.

How-ever,theuseofself-reportsforinitialscreeningofbullying

isinlinewiththeusualprocedureadoptedininternational

studies.Thus,eventhoughadministeringthestandard

mea-suretoassessbullyingforcross-nationalcomparisons(i.e.,

theOlweusBully/VictimQuestionnaire)1,5,11 _was_not

possi-bleinthisstudy,theresearchbydeOliveiraetal.provided

dataonbullying thatiscomparablewiththeinternational

literature.Moreover,thelargesizeofthesamplealso

guar-antees a reliable assessment of the situations of bullying

in Brazilian elementary schools. Hence, the high rate of

bullies that hasbeen found by deOliveira etal. suggests

that addressing bullyingis a possible priorityfor research

andfutureinterventioninBrazil.

In order todevelop Brazilian programs toprevent and

ﬁght bullying at school effectively, an accurate analysis

of the correlates associated to a higher risk of behaving

bullying amongBrazilian pupilsisneeded. Thisis the

sec-ondrelevantcontributionprovidedbydeOliveiraetal.to

theresearchonbullying.Indeed,thisstudyexaminessome

indexes of possible social and psychological adjustment

disorders of bullies, and some family dimensions possibly

relatedtoahigherprobabilitytobullypeersatschool.This

allowsfortheconstructionofaninitialproﬁleofthebullies

thatisspeciﬁctotheBraziliansociety.Thepictureemerging

fromthe study indicates that malegender and older

rel-ative age are associated withan increasedprobability to

beanaggressor.Theseﬁndings,aswellasthoseregarding

scarcefamilysupervisioninbullies’families,anddomestic

violence experiencedby bullies,aresimilartothe results

obtainedinotherinternationalliterature.However,the

out-comeson theethnicity ofthe bullies, together withdata

derived from the comparison between private and public

school,highlightsomeelementsthatarespeciﬁctoBrazilian

culture andthat call for furtherinvestigation. In

particu-lar,theauthorsfoundthatblackandAsianyouthaswellas

pupilsattendingprivateschoolsaremorelikelytobebullies.

In light of the literature on bullying, these ﬁndings

can-notbeadequatelyinterpretedwithoutalargerperspective

thatsimultaneouslyexaminesthecontextsinwhichbullying

occursmoredeeply.Indeed,bullyingisnotonlya

particu-larformofaggression,whichisproactive,12,13 _intentional,

andaimedatacquiringapowerfulpositionamongpeers,14

butit alsorepresentsatypeof antisocialbehaviorthatis

largelyinﬂuencedbythepeercontext.Theliteratureonthis

phenomenonhasconsistentlyshowedthatthestatuswithin

thepeergroup15,16_and_factors_at_the_peer_group_level,_such

asinformalnormsandattitudessharedamongschool-and

classmates,17_play_a_relevant_role_in_explaining_this_behavior.

Therefore,thefeaturesofthepeercontextinwhich

bully-ingamongBrazilianstudentshappensneed tobecarefully

considered.Followingthislineofreasoning,theﬁndingthat

belongingtospeciﬁcethnicitiesincreasestheriskofbeing

abullycannotbereadasan‘‘absolute’’index,butrather

requiresinvestigationofthemajority/minorityproportions

ofethnic groups in the schools where the data were

col-lected,and,inabroadenperspective,withintheBrazilian

context.These data, indeed,may mirrorthe presence of

formsofdiscriminatorybullying,18_of_{in-/out-group}_effects,

orofinformalpeer-groupnorms,17_which_may_be_established

withingroupsofpeerssharingthesameethnicity.Wealsodo

notknowenoughaboutwhowerethevictimsofthebullying

actions:forinstance,whetherthebulliedpeersbelongedto

thesameortoadifferentethnicgroupofbullies.

Accord-ingly,if,in Brazil, pupilsattending privateschools are at

higherrisk toshow bullying behaviors, thereis a need to

furtherexaminethefeaturesoftheprivateschoolcontext,

whichmayfavor bullying inBrazil. Is itpossible that

bul-lyingis actually favored by speciﬁc characteristics of the

pupilsattendingtheseschoolsandtheirfamilies?Ormayit

dependonfeaturesoftheorganizationandthedisciplinary

normsthataretypicaloftheprivateschoolenvironmentin

Brazil?Moreover,theschoolatmosphereandtheteachers’

attitudeshavebeenfoundtocontributeinpromotingor

hin-deringtheoccurrenceofbullying.19_Therefore,_the_study_by

deOliveiraetal.callsforfurtherresearchfocusingonthe

peer-andschool-contextdimensionsthatmaybeassociated

tobullyingbehavior in theBrazilian reality,which canbe

addressedbyanti-bullyinginterventions.

AthirdnovelcontributionfromthestudybydeOliveira

etal.consists ofthe analysisof thehealth-risk behaviors

associated to being an aggressor among Brazilian pupils.

The proﬁle of bullies emerging from their investigation

conﬁrmsthat bullying is an indicator of multidimensional

psychological and social adjustment disorders in youth.

Apparently,therearehigherprobabilitiesofBrazilianbullies

reporting risky behaviors in comparison to non-bully

peers.Reportedrisky behaviorsranged from consumption

oftobacco,alcohol,andillicitdrugs,tomissingclassesand

earlysexualintercourse.Thispictureisnottotallynovelin

theinternationalliteratureonbullying.20_However,

unfortu-nately,thecross-sectionalnatureofdatafromthestudyby

deOliveiraetal.doesnotallowunderstandingwhether

bul-lyingisapredictorofotherrisk-behaviorsamongBrazilian

childrenor ---more likely--- whether it mirrors a complex

social and psychological maladjustment proﬁle of

Brazil-ianbullies.Thisalsomaybepossiblyrelatedtodistortions

inmoraldevelopment,assomerecentliteratureon

bully-ingsuggests.21_{Nevertheless,}_undoubtedly_this_ﬁnding_by_de

Oliveiraetal.highlightshowthesocialcostsassociatedto

bullyingarehighinBraziltoo,andthatbeingabully

dur-ingelementaryschool in Brazilmay bean early indicator

ofmultifaceted disease,requiring multidimensionalforms

ofintervention, addressing the familyand,moreover, the

peers.Infact,peerinﬂuencehasbeenshowntoberelevant

inincreasingthe probabilitytobully andtoperformrisky

behaviors.19

The fact that bullying can be a possible indicator of

multi-dimensionaldifﬁcultiesinyouthﬁndsafurther

conﬁr-mation in its associations with psychological and social

maladjustment, and health-problem symptoms, including

insomnia, feelings of loneliness, and lack of friends, as

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6 CaravitaSC,ColomboB

feelings of loneliness and of being isolated by peers, in

particular,indicate thatbullying behavior is linkedtothe

emotional and social diseases of bullies. Reading these

feelingsasrepresentingpossiblehealthproblemsofbullies,

requesting health intervention is a reality, and is very

legitimate.However,amorecomplexreadingmayhighlight

somebullies’skillsthatarepossibleresourcestohelpthese

children. Indeed, the international literature on bullies’

socialcompetenceshowsthatpeersattributebullieswitha

highsocialstatus,asvisibleandinﬂuentialwithinthegroup,

butthattheyalsoreporttoactuallydislikebullies.15_Hence,

bullies’feelingsoflonelinessandisolationmayreﬂectthe

actualisolationthatiscausedbybullies’behavior,showing

thatbullieshaveadequateskillsinunderstandingthepeer

interactions.Theseskillscanbeconsideredwhenplanning

healthintervention.Lastly,thereisalsothepossibilitythat

thefeelingsoflonelinessexperiencedbybulliesalsodrive

and promote the bullying behavior. Unfortunately, since

thedataprovidedbydeOliveiraetal.arecross-sectional,

wecannotfurtherexplorethishypothesis,but,again,this

studydeﬁnitelypromotesfutureresearchonbullying,and

onitscorrelatesandmotivesamongBrazilianstudents.

Insummary,notwithstandingsomepossiblelimitations

---whicharecorrectlyidentiﬁedbytheauthors---thestudyby

deOliveiraetal.constitutesaninterestingcontributionto

literatureonbullying,andprovidessomeclearindications

for future research on this topic in Brazil. These

indica-tionsarealsohelpfultodevelopinterventionprogramswith

maximizedeffectivenessintheBraziliancontext.

Conﬂicts

of

interest

Theauthorsdeclarenoconﬂictsofinterest.

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