Bullying in schools: Rates, correlates and impact on mental health

Abstract

School-based bullying is a concern in many countries around the world due to the potential severe negative mental health impacts of bullying. This chapter provides an overview of the international research on bullying in schools with a particular focus on the negative mental health effects. In this chapter, three main groups of students are recognized: students who bully others, students who are bullied by others, and students who do both. We begin by defining bullying as it occurs in schools and note challenges in defining bullying, especially with the emergence of cyber-bullying (which itself has implications for schools). Next, we review the research literature for each of the student gro..