Bullying Prevention Explained

We know people are more likely to be bullied if they seem different from their peers in some way. This might include being clever or popular, differences in race, sexuality, gender identity, ethnicity, religion, disabilities and abilities, weight or height.

That’s why it’s so important to celebrate diversity and embrace our differences – we aren’t all the same and that’s a great thing!

Just as there are many reasons someone might experience bullying, there are also many reasons why someone might bully someone else.

• They feel unhappy.

• They have been the target of bullying themselves.

• They want to feel important or powerful.

• They don’t realise how their behaviour harms others.

• They believe being different is a bad thing.

Labelling someone who bullies as a “bad person” isn’t right or helpful. While the bullying behaviour isn’t okay, someone who bullies others often needs our help and awhi/support too.

• Many studies show that rangatahi who are bullied are more likely to experience mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

• This can impact on their learning, relationships and ability to feel good about who they are.

• Bullying harms the person being bullied, the person doing the bullying and can also harm those who witness it (bystanders).

• Rangatahi who bully others, or are bullied (or both), are more likely to skip classes, drop out of school, and perform worse academically than schoolmates who have no conflict with their peers (OECD, 2017).

• In Australia, by the time each student cohort has completed its schooling years (generally this is 13 years), the people experiencing the bullying, the people doing the bullying, their families, schools and the community will have experienced an estimated $525 million in costs associated with bullying (PwC).

• In Australia, after school completion, the consequences of bullying continue and are estimated to cost $1.8 billion for each single cohort of students over a period of 20 years (PwC).

• By taking bullying seriously and celebrating the diversity of tauira/students, all rangatahi can feel safe and supported, and flourish at your school!

While all young people are potential targets of bullying, some groups can experience higher rates. Boys, students from disadvantaged or immigrant backgrounds, and low achieving students are at higher risk. We see this trend happening not just in Aotearoa, but globally.

Tauira who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, or other sexuality and gender diverse communities, experience higher rates of bullying.

Identify’s 2022 community and advocacy report (6), which surveyed rainbow youth in Aotearoa, found that:

• More than half felt their school was not supportive of their rainbow identity.

• Over a third said they had experienced bullying at least once in the past 12 months. The proportion of trans and non-binary students who had been bullied was significantly larger than cisgender students who had been.

• One in six felt unsafe or very unsafe at their school as a rainbow person with the most common places they felt this way being classrooms, bathrooms or changing areas, corridors and stairwells, at a school event o function, and getting to and from school.