Emely (12) died: The unimaginable happened
– Bullying in schools has remained fairly stable over many years. Now there is a marked increase, says Christian Wendelborg, pedagogue, professor and researcher at NTNU Social Research.
He is the one who, on behalf of Udir, is responsible for the reports on the findings in the annual Student Survey. And there is one thing in particular that stands out in this year’s survey of the students’ learning environment, in which 460,272 Norwegian students participate:
– The increase in bullying is worrying, says Wendelborg.
Because there is a record-breaking increase in the incidence of bullying in Norwegian schools.
That is why we are creating a bullying portal
The portal
Dagbladet has carried out a review of all national bullying figures. We have compiled the overview with figures from the Student Survey, Youth Data and complaints to the state administrators.
In the portal Dagbladet has prepared, bullying statistics are searchable by school, municipality and county.
Find your bullying number here: Dagbladet’s bullying portal.
COULD BE THE PANDEMIC: The increase in bullying numbers may be due to changes that came during the pandemic, says Christian Wendelbord, professor and researcher at NTNU Social Research. Photo: Glen Musk / Dagbladet Show more
New calculations carried out by Professor Wendelborg and NTNU Social Research for Dagbladet show that 58,000 children in Norwegian primary schools were bullied in the last school year (2022/2023).
The estimates for the previous years are respectively around 46,500 (2021/2022) and 45,500 (2020/2021) the year before there again.
In other words, in the last school year there has been an increase of 11,500 pupils in primary school who are bullied.
Read how the calculation for the bullying figure is done in the box below:
58,000 children are bullied
This is how the estimate of how many children of primary school age are bullied is calculated:
The latest Pupil Survey shows that 12.5 per cent of pupils in the 5th grade are exposed to bullying two to three times a month or more often. For the 6th grade, the bullying rate is 10.9 per cent, while in the last year of primary school, 9.9 per cent of pupils experience being bullied.
Pupils from 1st to 4th grade do not participate in the Pupil Survey. It is therefore not known how many of the pupils in the primary school are bullied. What we do know is that bullying decreases with increasing age, according to researcher Wendelborg. On the basis of the responses in the Student Survey, he has estimated for Dagbladet how many children in primary school are exposed to regular bullying.
I in the 2022/2023 school year, there were 636,934 pupils in Norwegian primary schools. Because it happens more often that smaller children are bullied, it is reasonable to assume that the incidence of bullying in grades 1 to 4 is at least 12.5 percent, as it is in grade 5.
This means that one can assume that approximately 58,000 children in Norwegian primary schools, from 1st to 10th grade, are bullied.
Source: Christian Wendelborg, professor and researcher, NTNU Social Research
– Fell for a long time
And song report published on 22 August this year emphasizes that the negative trend has been visible at the primary school over several years. Now it has also reached the 10th stage and VG1.
– There has been a general decline in the learning environment index ever since 2016. This year there is also a fairly marked increase in bullying, says Wendelborg.
GENERAL DECLINE: There has been a decline in several learning environment indicators over several years, according to a new report from the Student Survey. Photo: Nina Hansen / Dagbladet Show more
He has written the new report together with senior researcher Beate Hygen.
The student survey measures several indicators of the learning environment, not just bullying. In the reports, they have seen that other factors in the learning environment – such as well-being, support from teachers, motivation and participation – have long declined. This year it also appears in the bullying figures.
Klara Øverland, associate professor in special pedagogy at the Learning Environment Center, University of Stavanger, is concerned about the increase in the proportion of students being bullied.
Pandemic shutdown
Some of the increase may be due to two years of closure and the pandemic, she believes. Home schooling may have led to children lacking social skills.
– Children need a lot of guidance in learning to interact with others. Now there are probably a number of children who have had no special practice in social competence. Then children become insecure, and insecure children react with stress, says Øverland, who is also a psychologist specialist for children and young people at the research institute Norce, RBKU West (Regional knowledge center for children and young people).
HAPPENS IN THE CLASSROOM: Much of the bullying takes place in well-known arenas, emphasizes associate professor Klara Øverland. Photo: Nina Hansen / Dagbladet Show more
Wendelborg at NTNU says they have several hypotheses for why the increase in bullying has come this year, but emphasizes that the reasons are complex and complex.
Aftermath of the pandemic, with the closure of schools, increased and other use of social media and gaming are highlighted as possible contributory causes.
– Perhaps it was the case that children and young people changed interaction and communication patterns when much of the interaction took place online? Perhaps during the pandemic people got used to different types of stimuli, so that traditional teaching at school was perceived as less motivating and engaging and that this in turn has led to some being bored at school and allowing this to affect others in the form of bullying? These are hypotheses that need to be investigated further, says Wendelborg and emphasizes that more research is needed to know for sure.
NEEDS PRACTICE: Social interaction requires practice. Many children were lost during the two-year shutdown. Photo: Nina Hansen / Dagbladet Show more
More physical bullying
The latest Pupil Survey finds that 12.5 per cent of pupils in the 5th grade are exposed to bullying two to three times a month or more often. For the 6th grade, the bullying rate is 10.9 per cent, while in the last year of primary school, 9.9 per cent of pupils experience being bullied.
This gives a bullying proportion of around 11 per cent for grades 5 to 7.
Last school year there was also an increase in grades 7-10. steps. among those who answer that they “were hit, pushed or held down at school”.
This is bullying
In the Student Survey, it is described what they mean by bullying.
“By bullying we mean repeated negative actions by one or more people together, against a student who may have difficulty defending himself.
Bullying can be calling someone ugly and teasing, keeping someone out, backbiting or hitting, pushing or holding on.”
– Especially up to the 9th grade, more girls than boys state that they are bullied, says Wendelborg.
Håvard Tjora, senior lecturer, author and lecturer, believes that it is easy to think that bullying is the gang of boys who beat the little boy, or the girls who stand and shout whore, but bullying is much more than that.
JUST AS SERIOUS: Social exclusion is as serious as physical bullying, says Håvard Tjora. – That’s what we do in prison. Photo: Lars Eivind Bones / Dagbladet Show more
– Loneliness, alienation and the fact that no one takes responsibility for you having a good time at your school are also bullying, he says.
But the fact that bullying includes more than physical abuse does not mean that it is less serious.
– It is just as serious to be completely frozen out. It’s just as stigmatizing, just as painful as being beaten up in the 80s. Going to school completely alone is as serious as someone beating you after school, says Tjora.
Will investigate bullying report
– Just as serious
Tjora, who first became known as the “super teacher” from the documentary series Blanke Ark, is fed up with comments such as “we called it teasing”.
– Social exclusion in any form is serious. That is what we do in prison, but even there we are concerned that they should be part of a society in prison. To say social exclusion is not serious is ignorant, he says.
When it comes to where the bullying takes place, 41.3 per cent of all pupils who are bullied state that the bullying takes place in the classroom. 75 percent of the 7th graders and 49.8 percent of the 10th graders say bullying happens in the school yard. Much of the bullying also takes place in school corridors and in changing rooms and toilets.
– These are known things. Then we have to introduce measures where this happens. This suggests that either the teachers do not see what is going on, or they do not have good enough techniques to stop it, says Øverland.
There is overlap between digital and physical bullying. Around 47 per cent of those who have been bullied digitally report that they are also exposed to traditional bullying, shows NTNU’s report from the latest survey.
READ ALL THE ARTICLES IN THE BULLYING SERIES HERE: Dagbladet against bullying
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2023-08-31 09:01:05
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