Student Peer Bullying: A Brief Overview of the Problem and Some Associated Myths

Over the past few years the news media has increasingly highlighted the problem of peer bullying in schools. Within school communities there is a considerable divergence of opinion as to how it should be viewed and what should be done to address it. Research in the area of bullying began to flourish following the pioneering work of Dan Olweus in the early 1970s and has sufficient depth to provide considerable direction to schools. In the last 20 years, a number of researchers in New Zealand and Australia have contributed substantially to the growing body of knowledge. This article takes a brief overview of the problem and examines a number of the associated myths about bullying, in the light of recent research.