What is school bullying?
The answer to this question varies across fields of inquiry like psychology, sociology, and education. Bullying also takes on different local meanings in social contexts such as school communities, parent circles, and adolescent friend groups; and unsurprisingly, it varies across geographic regions, nations, and cultures.
Themes in the text include:
The evolving definition of bullying in academia, law and anti-bullying policies and programs. Implications for data collection and measurement issues;
Social (societal) and institutional norms’ contribution to bullying. Research on hierarchical relationships in schools (e.g., teacher-student), peer group norms (e.g., in-group/out group), nonconformity, and school structures, policies and/or practices and how they relate to school bullying;
Social networks and conformity to peer norms that facilitate power imbalances associated with bullying;
Systemic bias in schools such as heteronormativity, cisnormativity, and ableism. Studies examining the pervasiveness of bias and its damaging impact on school climate are especially encouraged
The interaction between bullying in schools and the mental health of those impacted
New uses of digital technology for bullying such as in multiplayer online games, the use of AI for creating deepfake images, the creation of subtly offensive memes, and others.