Online bullying is becoming more prevalent among middle and high school students, “even as overall rates of bullying in schools have remained steady,” says a new federal report.

 

The Indicators of School Crime and Safety report from the National Center for Education Statistics, a research center with the U.S. Education Department found that twenty percent of students between the ages of 12 and 18 were bullied during the 2016-2017 school year.

Within the population of students who reported being bullied, 13 percent reported being made fun of; 13 percent reported being the subject of rumors; and 5 percent reported being pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on.

The report shows the extent to which students with different characteristics report being bullied, including estimates by student sex, race/ethnicity, grade, and household income as well as the characteristics of the schools they attend.

Key findings from the report are:

• In 2017, approximately 20 percent of students ages 12 through 18 reported being bullied at school. Of these students, 13 percent reported that they were made fun of, called names, or insulted; another 13 percent reported being the subject of rumors; 4 percent reported that they were threatened with harm; 5 percent reported that they were pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on; 2 percent reported that others tried to make them do things they did not want to do; 5 percent reported that they were excluded from activities on purpose; and 1 percent reported that their property was destroyed by others on purpose.
• Seventeen percent of male students and 24 percent of female students ages 12 through 18 reported being bullied.
• Of the 20 percent of students ages 12 through 18 who reported being bullied, 24 percent reported being bullied once, 17 percent reported being bullied on 2 days, 30 percent reported being bullied on 3 to 10 days, and 20 percent reported being bullied on more than 10 days.
• Forty-one percent of these students also reported that they believed the bullying would happen again, and 33 percent reported being bullied by multiple students acting as a team, or acting both alone and as a team.