Bullying is defined as malicious behavior that occurs in a school environment in which one student or a group of students intentionally targets another student physically, verbally, socially, or online. Here are some common bullying situations in schools:
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Verbal Bullying: This is one of the most common forms of bullying. It includes the use of verbal behaviors such as ridicule, insults, humiliation, and malicious rumors to hurt the feelings and self-esteem of others.
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Physical bullying: This form of bullying involves physical harm or threats to others, such as pushing, hitting, kicking, and taking property. Physical bullying can cause physical harm and pain to the victim.
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Social Exclusion: This form of bullying harms the victim’s social status and relationships by excluding, isolating, ignoring or refusing to interact with others. This can lead to victims feeling isolated and helpless.
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Cyberbullying: With the popularity of the Internet and social media, cyberbullying is becoming more common. It includes bullying others by posting insults, rumors, threats or malicious comments through online platforms such as email, instant messaging, social media, etc.
School bullying causes serious physical and psychological harm to victims, including anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, academic decline, and even the risk of suicide. It also has a negative impact on the school climate and learning environment, affecting students’ motivation and social skills.
To tackle bullying in schools, schools, parents and communities need to work together. This includes strengthening bullying prevention education, providing support and counseling services, establishing safe reporting mechanisms, developing clear policies and disciplinary measures, and cultivating a positive school culture and a welcoming learning environment.
Addressing the problem of bullying in schools requires ongoing attention and efforts to ensure that every student learns and grows in a safe, respectful and supportive environment.
Delaware Bullying Victimization Scale-Student (DBVS-S) is a test used to assess school bullying victimization experiences. scale. The original version contains 18 items divided into four dimensions: verbal bullying (4 items), physical bullying (4 items), social/relational bullying (4 items), and cyberbullying (6 items). By surveying the subjects, the researchers found that compared with the other three dimensions, cyberbullying occurs less frequently among students, often occurs outside school, and has a relatively weak correlation with the campus environment and atmosphere. Furthermore, there is some controversy as to whether cyberbullying belongs to the same construct as other dimensions. Therefore, researchers treated cyberbullying as an independent dimension when conducting statistical analyses. The same treatment was used for the Chinese version of the Delaware Bullying Victimization Scale.
The scale adopts a six-point Likert scale, in which ‘1’ means ’never’, ‘2’ means ‘occasionally’, ‘3’ means ‘once or twice a month’, and ‘4’ means ‘once a week’ , ‘5’ means ‘multiple times a week’, ‘6’ means ’every day’. Higher scores indicate more severe bullying.
In order to ensure that the item meanings of the Chinese version of the scale are consistent with the original version, this study obtained the authorization from the original author and revised the scale in Chinese. During the revision process, the English version of the Delaware School Bullying Victimization Scale was first translated into Chinese by two researchers who were familiar with school bullying issues and proficient in English. The Chinese translation was then back-translated into English by an individual who was not familiar with the issue of childhood bullying but was fluent in English. Finally, Yang, a member of the Bear research team, proofread the original English version and the back-translated version, compared the similarities and differences, and adjusted some of the text in the first Chinese draft. After this series of steps, the Chinese version of DBVS-S was finally formed.
By using the DBVS-S scale, researchers were able to assess students’ victimization experiences in four areas: verbal bullying, physical bullying, social/relational bullying, and cyberbullying. This research tool provides schools and research institutions with a tool to quantitatively measure the problem of school bullying, helps them understand the manifestations of bullying victimization in different dimensions, and provides a basis for developing prevention and intervention measures.
Each dimension of the DBVS-S scale covers a specific type of bullying behavior. The verbal bullying dimension includes an assessment of whether students have experienced verbal aggression such as verbal teasing, name-calling, or malicious rumors. The physical bullying dimension involves physical intrusions such as physical harm, beating, scolding, and kicking to students. The social/relational bullying dimension focuses on whether students are affected by bullying behaviors such as exclusion, isolation, rumor spreading, or social exclusion in peer relationships. The cyberbullying dimension assesses whether students suffer from online threats, online rumors, online abuse, or online exclusion in virtual spaces.
By using the DBVS-S scale, researchers were able to obtain students’ scores on each dimension and derive comprehensive assessment results. These scores can be used to compare levels of bullying victimization between different student groups, reveal differences along various dimensions, and identify high-risk groups. In addition, the scale can be used to track trends in bullying behavior, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, and provide researchers with a deeper understanding of the bullying phenomenon.
However, it should be noted that the DBVS-S scale is only an assessment tool, which provides a quantitative way to measure bullying victimization experiences, but does not fully represent the entire experience of an individual. Bullying is a complex social phenomenon that is affected by many factors, including individual characteristics, family environment, school climate, etc. Therefore, when using the DBVS-S scale, other methods and tools, such as interviews, observations, and psychological assessments, should be combined to obtain more comprehensive and accurate information.
If you are interested in the issue of bullying and would like to learn about your own or others’ experiences of victimization, you can try this free online test to assess bullying victimization. While these tests are not a replacement for professional evaluation and counseling, they can provide you with some preliminary information and references.
Please note that online testing only provides approximate results and may not represent the full picture of an individual. If you or others are being bullied or are concerned about your own safety or the safety of others, please seek help and support from professional agencies, schools or related institutions in a timely manner.
