Literature review- (1000 words) - Essay Example

Recent research has focused on both bullies and victims in a number of terms but this literature review will focus on research in relation to gender and age, and the accountings for victims and bullies. There have been a number of definitions provided for bullying, and as Attwood 2004, claimed “one person’s example of bullying can be another person’s idea of entertainment.” (para.1) Olweus claimed there were two sorts of bullying – direct, wherein the victim is subjected to physical abuse, and indirect, wherein the victim suffers psychological or emotional mistreatment.

(as cited in Green, 2007, para.1) Gray defined bullying as repeated damaging actions that were perhaps linked with negative intent. (as cited in Attwood, 2004, What is bullying section, para.1) Seals and Young, (2003) in their study into the occurrence and relationship of bullying to gender, age, ethnicity, self esteem and depression, experienced by seventh and eighth grade students in the northern delta region of the US, showed that there were considerably more male than female bullies, with “twice as many males identified as females identified as bullies.

” (Discussion section, para.2) Delfabbro, Winefield, Tramer, Dollard, Anderson, Metzer and Hammarstrom (2006) also found, in their study into bullying by peers and teachers in secondary schools in South Australia, that boys are “more likely to be the perpetrators of bullying.” (p.72) Boys have also been found to be more violent and cause injury, therefore bullying by more overt physical means. Girls, on the other hand, tend to be more covert and devious, utilizing such means as spiteful rumour mongering and telling tales or gossiping.

Delfabbro et al (2006) stated that “girls are significantly more likely to use … non-physical aggression.” (p.72) Victims of bullying are often bullied by others of the same gender; that is to say, boys are bullied by boys and girls are bullied