Abstract
Background
Verbal bullying is often reported by students. However, little is known about the exact things that bullies say to students or the immediate emotional reactions elicited by verbal bullying.
Objective
This study examined verbal bullying to determine what specific taunts are used in bullying, how students feel when they hear these taunts, if there is a relationship between particular taunts and feelings, and gender differences among these variables.
Method
Participants in this field study included a sample of middle school students, grades 6–8, with data collected over three years (N = 339) from a large school district in the United States. Using an open-ended format, students wrote things they thought bullies might say and how they would feel if they heard these taunts.
Results
Individual taunts such as “ugly” and “fat” and those falling into the categories of Stupid, Name Calling, and Personal Insults were most common. Frequent emotional responses were Sad, Angry/Hatred, and Depressed. Gender differences in both taunts and feelings were few, but females were more likely than males to be sensitive to issues of appearance, sexual propriety, and genuineness.
Conclusions
These data expand the literature by specifying the content of verbal bullying and immediate emotional reactions to it. They identify appearance as well as competence and warmth, key factors in the Stereotype Content Model, as underlying much of the content of verbal bullying.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baharloo, R., Fei, X., & Bian, L. (2022). The Development of Racial Stereotypes about Warmth and Competence. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/r28yq
Betts, L. R., Houston, J. E., & Steer, O. (2015). Development of the multidimensional peer victimization scale-revised (MPVS-R) and the multidimensional peer bullying scale (MPVS-RB). Journal of Genetic Psychology, 176, 109–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221325.2015.1007915
Borg, M. G. (1998). The emotional reactions of school bullies and their victims. Educational Psychology, 18(4), 433–444. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144341980180405
Cuddy, A. J., Fiske, S. T., & Glick, P. (2007). The BIAS map: behaviors from intergroup affect and stereotypes. J Personal Soc Psychol, 92(4), 631–648. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.4.631
Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J. C., & Glick, P. (2007). Universal dimensions of social cognition: warmth and competence. Trends Cognit Sci, 11(2), 77–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2006.11.005
Fleming, L. C., & Jacobsen, K. H. (2010). Bullying among middle-school students in low and middle income countries. Health Promotion International, 25(1), 73–84. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/dap046
Geiger, B., & Fischer, M. (2006). Wills words ever harm me? Escalation from verbal and physical abuse in sixth grade classrooms. J Int Violence, 21(3), 337–357. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260505282886
Horowitz, J. A., Vessey, J. A., Carlson, K. L., Bradley, J. F., Montoya, C., McCullough, B., & David, J. (2004). Teasing and bullying experiences of middle school students. J Am Psych Nurses Assoc, 10(4), 165–172. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078390304267862
Hymel, S., & Swearer, S. (2015). Four decades of research on school bullying: an introduction. American Psychologist, 70(4), 293–299. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038928
Jackson, L. A. (1992). Physical appearance and gender: Advances through Meta-analysis. New York: State University of New York.
Karakurt, G., & Silver, K. E. (2013). Emotional abuse in intimate relationships: the role of gender and age. Violence Victims, 28(5), 804–821. https://doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708
Klein, J. (2012). The bully society: School shootings and the crisis of bullying in America’s schools. New York: New York University Press
Luxenberg, H., S. P. Limber, and D. Olweus. (2019). Bullying in U.S. Schools: 2019 Status Report. retrieved from https://olweus.sites.clemson.edu/documents/Status%20Report_2019.pdf
Mynard, H., & Joseph, S. (2000). Development of the multidimensional peer-victimization scale. Aggressive Behavior, 26, 169–178. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1098-2337(2000)
National Center for Education Statistics (2015). School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCES 2017–015). http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2017/2017015.pdf.
Newman, K. L., Alexander, D. S., & Rovers, J. P. (2023). Sadness, hopelessness and suicide attempts in bullying: data from the 2018 Iowa Youth Survey. PLoS ONE, 18(2), e0281106. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281106
Olweus, D. (1978). Aggression in the schools: Bullies and whipping boys. Hemisphere.
Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at school: What we know and what we can do. Blackwell.
Pickhardt, C. (2010). Why good kids act cruel: The hidden truth about the pre-teen years. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Rigby, K., & Bortolozzo, G. (2013). How schoolchildren’s acceptance of self and others relate to their attitudes to victims of bullying. Soc Psychol Ed: an Int J, 16(2), 181–197. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-013-9213-y
Rivers, I., & Smith, P. K. (1994). Types of bullying behavior and their correlates. Aggressive Behavior, 20(5), 359–368. https://doi.org/10.1002/1098-237(1994)
Rolfe, S. M., & Schroeder, R. D. (2017). “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”: Verbal sexual harassment among middle school students. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 35(17–18), 3462–3486. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517709802
Roussos, G., & Dunham, Y. (2016). The development of stereotype content: The use of warmth and competence in assessing social groups. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 141, 133–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.08.009
Sifferlin, A. (2013, August 19). Childhood bullying’s lasting impact on employment. https://healthland.time.com/2013/08/19/childhood-bullyings-lasting-impact-on-employment/#ixzz2lCvTUgWd
Silva, G. R. R. E., Lima, M. L. C., Acioli, R. M. L., & Barreira, A. K. (2020). Prevalence and factors associated with bullying: differences between the roles of bullies and victims of bullying. J De Pediatria, 96(6), 693–701. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jped.2019.09.005
Stubbs-Richardson, M., & May, D. C. (2012). Social contagion in bullying: an examination of strains and types of bullying victimization in peer networks. Am J Criminal Justice, 46, 748–769. https://doi.org/10.1007/812103-020-09572-y
Swearer, S.M., Collins, A., & Berry, B. (2012). Bullying. In Encyclopedia of Human Behavior: Second Edition (pp. 417–422). Elsevier Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-375000-6.00077-x
Unnever, J. D., & Cornell, D. G. (2003). The culture of bullying in middle school. J School Violence, 2(2), 5–27. https://doi.org/10.1300/J202v02n02_02
Wang, K., Chen, Y., Zhang, J., & Oudekerk, B.A. (2020). Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2019 (NCES 2020–063/NCJ 254485). National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, and Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Washington, DC. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/crimeindicators/index.asp.
Winiewski, M., Budziszewska, M., & Swider, M. (2019). Differentiated content of verbal aggression: effect of gender on insults in secondary schools in Poland. School Psychol Int, 40(5), 493–509. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034319867745
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
No funding was received for conducting this study. The first author led the development of the activity used in this study.
Ethical Approval
The procedure followed the ethical standards of the Institutional Review Board at the university of the first author. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments.
Consent to Participate
Data used in the study were collected anonymously. Consent to participate in the exercise described in this article was obtained by the students, parents or guardians and teachers.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Kapitanoff, S., Pandey, C. The Content of Verbal Bullying and Emotional Reactions Among Middle-School Students. Child Youth Care Forum (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-024-09796-7
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-024-09796-7