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FACTS ABOUT BULLYING

  1. In the US, 1 in 5 students ages 12-18 has been bullied during the school year.[1]

  2. Approximately 160,000 teens have skipped school because of bullying.[2]

  3. Students who reported that they were frequently bullied scored lower in reading, mathematics, and science than their peers who reported that they were never or rarely bullied.[3]

  4. The most commonly reported type of bullying is verbal harassment (79%), followed by social harassment (50%), physical bullying (29%), and cyberbullying (25%).[4]

  5. Labeling an incident as bullying can be important because it influences whether students tell an adult, as well as how adults respond to the student’s report.[5]

  6. More than half of bullying situations (57%) stop when a peer intervenes on behalf of the student being bullied.[6]

  7. 6th-grade students experience the most bullying (31%).[7]

  8. 70% of school staff have seen bullying. 62% witnessed bullying two or more times in the last month, and 41% witness bullying once a week or more.[8]

  9. Students are less likely to report bullying as they get older. Only 39% of high schoolers notified an adult of bullying.[9]

  10. 42% percent of students who reported being bullied at school indicated that the bullying was related to at least one of the following characteristics: physical appearance (30%), race (10%), gender (8%), disability (7%), ethnicity (7%), religion (5%), and sexual orientation (4%).[10]

  11. Over half of students ages, 12-18 who reported being bullied believed their bullies had the ability to influence what other students thought of them. [11]

  1. National Center for Education Statistics. "Bullying: Fast Facts.” Accessed Aug. 21, 2019. https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=719 ↩︎

  2. Bureau of Justice Statistics, The National Education Association. "Indicators of School Crime and Safety.” Accessed Aug. 21, 2019, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/bullying/2010bullyvictimdata.html. ↩︎

  3. Bureau of Justice Statistics, The National Education Association. "Indicators of School Crime and Safety.” Accessed Aug. 21, 2019, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/bullying/2010bullyvictimdata.html. ↩︎

  4. Youth Truth Student Survey. "How Are Students Experiencing Bullying?" Accessed Aug. 21, 2019. https://youthtruthsurvey.org/bullying/. ↩︎

  5. US Department of Health and Human Services. "The Role of Teachers and Other School Staff in Bullying Prevention ." Accessed Aug. 21, 2019. https://www.prevnet.ca/sites/prevnet.ca/files/fact-sheet/PREVNet-SAMHSA-Factsheet-The-Role-of-Teachers-and-Other-Staff-in-Bullying-Prevention.pdf. ↩︎

  6. National Bullying Prevention Center. "Bullying Facts.” Accessed Aug. 21, 2019. https://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/facts.asp. ↩︎

  7. StopBullying.gov, "A Snapshot on Bullying in America." Accessed Aug. 21, 2019. https://www.stopbullying.gov/sites/default/files/2017-10/stop-bullying-infographic.pdf. ↩︎

  8. StopBullying.gove. "Facts About Bullying: Statistics" Accessed Aug. 21, 2019. https://www.stopbullying.gov/media/facts/index.html ↩︎

  9. Anti-Defamation League. "Statistics on Bullying." Accessed Aug. 21, 2019. https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/documents/bullying-cyberbullying-statistics-overview-one-sheet.pdf. ↩︎

  10. National Center for Education Statistics. "Indicator 10: Bullying at School and Electronic Bullying.” Indicators of School Crime and Safety. Accessed August 21, 2019. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/crimeindicators/ind_10.asp ↩︎

  11. National Center for Education Statistics. "Spotlight 2: Perceptions of Bullying Among Students Who Reported Being Bullied: Repetition and Power Imbalance.” Indicators of School Crime and Safety. Accessed August 21, 2019. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/crimeindicators/ind_10.asp ↩︎

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