Some experts on Bullying believe South America is the worst region in the world for

the problem, and they believe Colombia is one of the worst in South America.

“The figures we use in Colombia are higher than world averages, are relatively close
to the Latin American average, which in turn are the highest compared to other
parts of the world,” said Enrique Chaux, a researcher at the University of Andes.

A study by that university that surveyed 55,000 students from 59 cities, found that
30 percent of fifth graders said they had been bullied. Fifteen percent of ninth
graders said they had been bullied, but Chaux said this does not mean there is less
bullying. He said it may be more focused as kids get older, but it is the same
children being victimized by bullying in Colombia.

Chaux also said at public schools there is more face to face bullying, but in private
schools there is more internet bullying, which is called cyberbullying.

Mauricio Cabrera, a school official at San Bonifacio in Lanza, Ibague, said there are
many cases of cyberbullying. There is facebook bullying where students say another
student is gay, and he also pointed to examples of internet bullying where students
dared other students to kill themselves.

A case in 2012 caught the nation’s attention, and that has resulted in bulling
awareness being brought to a new level. In this case a 13-year-old boy reported that
some other boys were bullying a girl in their class in a school in the town of Itagui.
Those boys then accosted the youth after school and beat him so severely that he
died a few days later from his wounds.

That was in 2012, and later that same year the national congress passed a law to try
to decrease incidents of violence such a bullying. Under the law, schools were to
investigate claims of bullying, and further, they were to report those to the
government and then file follow up reports showing the disposition of the case.

This also contains instructions on giving education about teen pregnancy and
sexually transmitted diseases. Representative Telesforo Pedraza, who wrote the law,
said students need to understand the effects of bullying, and he hoped citizens
would get involved to help with the problem.

In passing the law, the ministry of education reported that 13 percent of students
had quit school because of bullying in 2011.

Since then several organizations have been founded in the country to combat
bullying. The Friends United Foundation is one of those, and a study they did as late
as early 2016 found that about a third of the students in middle school bullying
reported they had been harassed. The signs of bullying show that it usually happens
in those middle school years and continues as high school bullying.

This study also broke down reasons for students being bullied. It found that 30
percent were bullied because they were gay or because of their sexual orientation.
Race was the reason for 25 percent of the bullying, and 20 percent were because the
student was different in some other way.

This report said some internet bullies try to get kids to commit suicide, or try to
harass them sexually in some way, or by posting pictures of them. More than 30
percent of bully victims think about suicide and as many as a third make an attempt.
The Friends United Foundation has started a “stop bullying in Columbia” campaign.
They advocate prevention measures like having parents, teachers and other officials
being made more aware of the issues and raising awareness. They also advocate
intervention measures such as helping those who might become a victim be better
prepared to handle bullying. They also have activities planned in the schools to help
students be more aware of how to confront bullying and provide more bullying
information.

One of the solutions being advocated is school cohesion or being more school

connected. The idea is that the group can stop bullying by creating an environment
of inclusion. This would also include having students feeling empowered to speak
up against bullying, and to help those who have been bullied. This is seen as how to
handle bullying in Colombia.

Cyberbullying is also a growing concern as more people – especially younger people

– are more connected electronically. A study in Cali found 77 percent of children in
that area were affected by bullying, which included the bully, the victim and the
witnesses of bullying in Colombia according to facts about cyberbullying.

This study showed that 46 percent of children who bully do so to feel strong. In the
case of girls, 43 percent said they bullied to gain social recognition among their
peers. When children are harassed, 40 percent say they want to get even and
become bullies themselves.

In March of 2014 alone, there were 6,898 complaints of cyberbullying in Columbia

that had been reported as bullying statistics. Experts say while these are big
numbers, more go unreported because there is a lot of emotional damage and kids
are afraid to speak out when they have been bullied. Sometimes parents downplay
the importance to the child, and tell the child to not allow it and it wont happen. This
causes children to fall into depression and causes some to kill themselves.

There was a report of a girl in Bogota in 2014, who killed herself after pictures of her
were posted on Facebook, along with nasty hurtful messages.

When parents are not supportive in this situation, the symptoms of

sadness, anxiety, depression, and poor performance in school just get worse.

A report out of Bogota said often it is girls that are more involved with cyberbullying.
Boys tend to be more aggressive and more likely to bully in the schools in face to
face encounters, while girls are more relational and more likely to use verbal
bullying than physical.

While there is a law against both bullying and cyberbulling, some are finding Cali
schools themselves uncooperative in the battle against this problem. Cali
investigators say some schools just try to get students to transfer to another school.

Some say the schools refuse to report the incidents because they feel it harms the
school’s reputation. Even though there are penalties schools can suffer for doing
this according to cyberbullying laws

There are studies that show bullying has a harmful effect on learning. A CEPAL study
by UNESCO showed the relationship in a study of 16 Latin American nations that
involved 91,000 sixth grade students.
For this study, 6,035 Colombian sixth graders were surveyed, involving 203 schools
in the country in 2013. According to this study, 63 percent of the students reported
some form of bullying which was the highest in South America. According to the
study, 19 percent said they were physically bullied and 24 percent said they were
verbally bullied, both of which were slightly above the regional average.. A total of
54 percent said they had been robbed or had property stolen, which was the highest
in South America. The study showed 74 percent had witnessed bullying, which was
also highest in the region.

Reading and math scores of victims were also analyzed, and in Colombia math
scores fell by six percent and reading scores fell by two percent when people had
been victims of bullying in Colombia. That impact was well below the regional
average of nine percent. Witnessing bullying caused math scores to fall six percent
and reading scores to fall just 1.6 percent, which were also below the regional
average.

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/05/bullying-research.aspx

May 14, 2015

Bullying: What We Know Based On 40 Years

of Research
APA journal examines science aimed at understanding causes, prevention
WASHINGTON — A special issue of American Psychologist® provides a comprehensive
review of over 40 years of research on bullying among school age youth,
documenting the current understanding of the complexity of the issue and
suggesting directions for future research.
“The lore of bullies has long permeated literature and popular culture. Yet
bullying as a distinct form of interpersonal aggression was not systematically
studied until the 1970s. Attention to the topic has since grown exponentially,”
said Shelley Hymel, PhD, professor of human development, learning and
culture at the University of British Columbia, a scholarly lead on the special
issue along with Susan M. Swearer, PhD, professor of school psychology at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “Inspired by the 2011 U.S. White House
Conference on Bullying Prevention, this collection of articles documents current
understanding of school bullying.”
The special issue consists of an introductory overview (PDF, 90KB) by Hymel
and Swearer, co-directors of the Bullying Research Net

work, and five articles on various research areas of bullying including the long-
term effects of bullying into adulthood, reasons children bully others, the effects
of anti-bullying laws and ways of translating research into anti-bullying practice.
Articles in the issue:
Long-Term Adult Outcomes of Peer Victimization in Childhood and
Adolescence: Pathways to Adjustment and Maladjustment (PDF, 122KB) by
Patricia McDougall, PhD, University of Saskatchewan, and Tracy Vaillancourt,
PhD, University of Ottawa.
The experience of being bullied is painful and difficult. Its negative impact — on
academic functioning, physical and mental health, social relationships and self-
perceptions — can endure across the school years. But not every victimized
child develops into a maladjusted adult. In this article, the authors provide an
overview of the negative outcomes experienced by victims through childhood
and adolescence and sometimes into adulthood. They then analyze findings
from prospective studies to identify factors that lead to different outcomes in
different people, including in their biology, timing, support systems and self-
perception.
Patricia McDougall can be contacted by email or by phone at (306) 966-6203.

A Relational Framework for Understanding Bullying: Developmental

Antecedents and Outcomes (PDF, 151KB) by Philip Rodkin, PhD, and Dorothy
Espelage, PhD, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Laura Hanish,
PhD, Arizona State University.
How do you distinguish bullying from aggression in general? In this review, the
authors describe bullying from a relationship perspective. In order for bullying to
be distinguished from other forms of aggression, a relationship must exist
between the bully and the victim, there must be an imbalance of power between
the two and it must take place over a period of time. “Bullying is perpetrated
within a relationship, albeit a coercive, unequal, asymmetric relationship
characterized by aggression,” wrote the authors. Within that perspective, the
image of bullies as socially incompetent youth who rely on physical coercion to
resolve conflicts is nothing more than a stereotype. While this type of “bully-
victim” does exist and is primarily male, the authors describe another type of
bully who is more socially integrated and has surprisingly high levels of
popularity among his or her peers. As for the gender of victims, bullying is just
as likely to occur between boys and girls as it is to occur in same-gender
groups.  
Dorothy Espelage can be contacted by email or by phone at (217) 333-9139.

Translating Research to Practice in Bullying Prevention (PDF, 157KB) by

Catherine Bradshaw, PhD, University of Virginia.
This paper reviews the research and related science to develop a set of
recommendations for effective bullying prevention programs. From mixed
findings on existing programs, the author identifies core elements of promising
prevention approaches (e.g., close playground supervision, family involvement,
and consistent classroom management strategies) and recommends a three-
tiered public health approach that can attend to students at all risk levels.
However, the author notes, prevention efforts must be sustained and integrated
to effect change. 
Catherine Bradshaw can be contacted by email or by phone at (434) 924-
8121.

Law and Policy on the Concept of Bullying at School (PDF, 126KB) by Dewey

Cornell, PhD, University of Virginia, and Susan Limber, PhD, Clemson
University.
Since the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999, all states but one have
passed anti-bullying laws, and multiple court decisions have made schools
more accountable for peer victimization. Unfortunately, current legal and policy
approaches, which are strongly rooted in laws regarding harassment and
discrimination, do not provide adequate protection for all bullied students. In this
article, the authors provide a review of the legal framework underpinning many
anti-bullying laws and make recommendations on best practices for legislation
and school policies to effectively address the problem of bullying.
Dewey Cornell can be contacted by email or by phone at (434) 924-0793.

Understanding the Psychology of Bullying: Moving Toward a Social-Ecological

Diathesis-Stress Model by Susan Swearer, PhD, University of Nebraska-
Lincoln, and Shelley Hymel, PhD, University of British Columbia.
Children’s involvement in bullying varies across roles and over time. A student
may be victimized by classmates but bully a sibling at home. Bullying is a
complex form of interpersonal aggression that can be both a one-on-one
process and a group phenomenon. It negatively affects not only the victim, but
the bully and witnesses as well. In this paper, the authors suggest an integrated
model for examining bullying and victimization that recognizes the complex and
dynamic nature of bullying across multiple settings over time.
Susan Swearer can be contacted by email or by phone at (402) 472-1741. 
Shelley Hymel can be contacted by email or by phone at (604) 822-6022.

Copies of articles are also available from APA Public Affairs, (202) 336-5700.
The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest
scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United
States. APA's membership includes more than 122,500 researchers, educators,
clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of
psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial
associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and
application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's
lives.