In their article “Bullying at the school: a Canadian perspective”, Alice Charach, Debra Pepler and Suzanne Ziegler explored bullying among 4 to 14-year-old children in Canadian schools to develop a bullying intervention program. Bullying was defined as repeated exposure to negative actions on the part of another including direct physical or verbal aggression and indirect aggression through threats, intimidation, exclusion or gossip. Although major studies have been conducted in other countries, the authors indicated that this topic has been largely unexplored in Canada.
In this study, the authors investigated student’s, teacher’s and parent’s perception on the prevalence of and perceived reasons for bullying using self-reported information. Age, gender and race patterns, bullying of special needs children, responses to victimization, and the role of adults in dealing with bullying were also researched. Cited studies from Norway and Britain using a self-report survey indicated, that bullying is a somewhat greater problem in the UK (United Kingdom). Although though rates were similar, more British than Norwegian schoolchildren identified themselves as bullies (12%), victims (24%) or as having experienced frequent bullying (14%). The Norwegian study revealed that parents and school staff were generally unaware of bullying. An inverse relationship between supervisor numbers and the frequency of bullying was identified.
The survey was adapted for the Canadian school system and administered to 211 children in 22 classrooms at 16 schools in Toronto. Six questions were added which assessed the respondent’s opinions about bullying occurrence and prevention.
Students from age 4 to 14, including six special needs classrooms, were assessed. Sixty-percent of teachers and 38% of parents surveyed responded to a modified adult version. All students participated in a