Journal of Adolescence 2000, 23, 57±68

doi:10.1006/jado.1999.0289, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

Effects of peer victimization in schools and perceived

social support on adolescent well-being
KEN RIGBY

It has been suggested that the mental health of schoolchildren can be undermined by
repeated bullying at school and further exacerbated by having inadequate social
support. To evaluate this claim, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) was
administered anonymously to 845 adolescent schoolchildren attending coeducational
secondary schools in South Australia, together with measures of the extent to which
each reported being bullied at school and the social support available to them. Multiple
regression analyses indicated that for both sexes frequent peer victimization and low
social support contributed significantly and independently to relatively poor mental
health. # 2000 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents

Introduction

It has been suggested that being bullied at school is a source of much stress for some children
and that it can have significant adverse effects on their general well-being (Olweus, 1992;
Sharp, 1995; Rigby, 1997a). There is also a considerable body of research that indicates that
the perception of social support is positively related to adjustment and health outcomes
(House et al., 1988; Sarason et al., 1990). One would therefore anticipate that those students
who are most victimized by their peers and least positive in their perceptions of social support
would have the lowest levels of well-being. Whether this is so was investigated with a sample
of secondary students attending coeducational schools in South Australia.
Bullying is generally conceived as repeated unprovoked aggressive behaviour in which the
perpetrator or perpetrators are more powerful than the person or persons being attacked. It
may be physical in form or non-physical; direct or indirect. The victim of such aggression is
typically unable to resist effectively because of the power imbalance. Studies conducted in
different parts of the world have provided evidence that bullying is widely prevalent; for
example, in Norway (Olweus, 1993), England (Smith and Sharp, 1994), Canada (Pepler
et al., 1993) and Australia (Rigby and Slee, 1991). Estimates of its incidence vary according
to geographical location, the ages of the children sampled, the method of data collection and
how bullying behaviour was operationalized. In Australia, where this study was undertaken,
large-scale surveys of more than 25,000 children have led to the conclusion that
approximately one child in seven is bullied at school at least once a week (Rigby, 1997a).
The harmfulness of bullying for the mental health of those repeatedly victimized by peers
at school has been suggested in a number of studies. Olweus (1993) reported that in Norway
boys between 13 and 16 years who were victims at school had lower than average self esteem,
a condition that was found to persist into their twenties. Elsewhere, in Ireland (O'Moore and
Hillery, 1991), in Australia (Rigby and Slee, 1993a; Zubrick et al., 1997) and in England
(Boulton and Smith, 1994), there have been further reports confirming the connection

Reprint requests and correspondence should be addesssed to: K. Rigby, University of South Australia, Underdale
Campus, Holbrooks Road, Underdale, South Australia 5032.

0140-1971/00/010057+12$35
00/0 # 2000 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents

58 K. Rigby

between low self esteem and being repeatedly bullied at school. A connection, too, has been
suggested with severe depressive tendencies. Among Canadian elementary school children,
those reporting high levels of peer victimization were found to be more depressed than others
(Craig, 1998). In Australia adolescent schoolchildren, both boys and girls who had been
repeatedly bullied (according to peer reports as well as self-reports) were found to be more
prone to suicidal ideation than other students (Rigby, 1997b, 1998c).
Social support is a multifaceted concept. It can include the provision of material
assistance, as in taking actions to further one's goals; cognitive aspects, as in helping one to
think through a problem; and an emotional or affective element, as in demonstrating a liking
or acceptance of another (Kahn and Antonucci, 1980). Where such support is recognized as
being available, one would expect it to have positive effects on one's well-being. It has been
suggested in the so-called ``buffer hypothesis'' that social support may have differential effects
upon well-being according to the level of stress being experienced, such that the more
stressed individuals are benefited most (Cohen and Hoberman, 1983). If this is so, it is
possible that students who are the most frequently victimized will be helped most by the
perceived availability of social support.
This research does not directly address the issue of casual relations between peer
victimization and mental health. There is an assumption that repeatedly being bullied at
school can have the effect of reducing a child's level of personal well-being. This is consistent
with reports from students who have been bullied at school that they commonly report a loss
of self-esteem afterwards (Boulton and Underwood, 1994; Rigby, 1997b). The assumption is
also supported in reports from the U.S.A. based on longitudinal studies with young children
(Kochenderfer and Ladd, 1996) and more recently with Australian adolescent high school
students (Rigby, 1998a, 1998b). In the Australian study it was found that adolescents who
reported high levels of reported peer victimization in the first 2 years of high school
experienced relatively low levels of personal well-being 3 years later. This result was
significant after controlling for initial levels of health. It remains possible, however, that low
levels of well-being may result in some children being bullied by others relatively often.
A further matter of interest in this study concerned possible differences in the effects of
bullying and social support on the well-being of male and female adolescents. Previous
research has reported that in secondary schools, the bullying of boys tends to be more
physical, whilst girls are more likely to engage in indirect forms of bullying such as exclusion
(Bjorkqwest et al., 1992). Overall, reports suggest that boys are bullied more frequently
(Olweus, 1993). It has also been suggested that the availability and nature of social support
experienced by the sexes may differ, with girls more commonly receiving emotional support
from people of their own sex. Further, girls appear more likely to turn to others for support
(Freydenberg, 1997). Recent research with Australian adolescents has indicated that boys
and girls tend to react differently to repeated victimization at school, with girls more
commonly seeking help from others and more often reporting feelings of sadness and misery
(Rigby, 1997b). Given these reported differences, the gender of the adolescent was included
as a variable in this study.

Hypotheses

(1) Both relatively high levels of reported peer victimization at school and low
perceived social support are associated with poor well-being among adolescent
students.
 Peer victimization and social support 59

(2) Both factors operate jointly in contributing to poorer mental health: that is,
where a student is being bullied by others AND has relatively little social support,
the likelihood of poor mental health is significantly higher than if only one of
these factors operated.
(3) Consistent with the ``buffer hypothesis'', the contribution of social support would
be greatest in cases where bullying is experienced most.

Method
Subjects
The subjects were selected from students at three coeducational secondary schools situated
in similar socio-economic status areas in South Australia. Questionnaires administered
anonymously in class by the class teacher were answered by 450 boys and 395 girls. Their
ages ranged from 12 to 16 years. The mean age for boys was 14?01 years (S.D.ˆ0?77); for girls,
the mean age was 13?92 (S.D.ˆ0?71).

Measures
Assessing victimization. In order to clarify for purposes of the research how the term
``bullying'' was to be understood, it was stated in the questionnaire that: ``Children
sometimes bully weaker children at school by deliberately and repeatedly hurting or upsetting
them in some way, for example by hitting or pushing them around, teasing them or leaving
them out of things on purpose''. It was emphasized that ``it is not bullying when two people of
about the same strength have the odd fight or quarrel''.

Index of victimization. To provide an estimate of the frequency with which students

had experienced bullying during the school year questions were asked to say how often they
had been bullied by another student or group of students that year using six response
categories: every day; most days; 1 or 2 days a week; about once a week; less than once a
week; and never. This measure had previously been included in the Peer Relations
Questionnaire (PRQ) devised by Rigby and Slee (1993b). Results using this index enabled
comparisons to be made with results from over 38,000 Australian schoolchildren (Rigby,
1998d).

Victim scales. Two multi-item scales were used to assess degree of victimization
experienced by students at school. Victim scale A was intended to tap the extent to which
students saw themselves as targets of bullying at school: for example, by being picked on by
others. This measure, developed by Rigby and Slee (1993a) is part of a set of 20 items, each
of which enables the respondent to describe ``the kind of person I am''. There are six items
that are revelant to being bullied, each with four response cateogries: never; once in a while;
pretty often; and very often. Items are scored 1±4 and summed for the total scale.
Victim scale B focusses on five kinds of action that are commonly involved in bullying
encounters. These are direct verbal (being called hurtful names and being teased in an
unpleasant way); relational (being left out of things on purpose); physical (being hit or
kicked); and finally being threatened with harm, which could have verbal, physical and
relational connotations. Respondents are asked to say how often they had been bullied in
60 K. Rigby

each of these ways over the last 12 months: never, sometimes and often. Items are scored 1±3
according to indicated frequency and summed to give a scale total.
The use of two scales measuring reported victimization, one asking respondents to describe
themselves in ways relevant to being bullied, and the other to indicate how often they had
been bullied by peers in specified ways, may be regarded as complementary: Victim Scale A
being more obviously related to the self-concept of students and Victim Scale B to a more
objective perception of what other students had done to them. If significant results could be
obtained using each measure in turn as a dependent variable, the findings would be more
robust and less easy to dismiss as an artefact of a particular method or use of a particular
research instrument.
Well-being. Well-being was measured using the 28-item General Health Questionnaire
(GHQ) devised by Goldberg and Williams (1991). This contains four seven-item subscales
assessing the prevalence of: (i) somatic symptoms, e.g., ``feeling run down and out of sorts'';
(ii) anxiety, e.g., ``felt constantly under strain''; (iii) social dysfunction, e.g., ``felt (un)able to
enjoy your normal day-to-day activities''; and (iv) depression, e.g., ``felt that life was entirely
hopeless''. For the most part this measure is concerned with the mental health of people.
Respondents indicate on a four-point scale how they have been feeling over the last few
weeks in relation to each item; e.g., from ``not at all'' to ``much more than usual''. Item scores
are summed: high scores indicate low well-being.
Social support. To assess social support students were asked to indicate how much help
they thought they would get from specified persons if they were having serious problems at
school. The persons indicated were: teacher at school; your best friend; students in your
class; your mother; and your father. For each of these sources five response categories were
provided ranging from ``none or hardly any'' (scored as 1) to ``a lot'' (scored as 5). In addition,
the scores for each of the five sources were summed to provide a measure of Overall Social
Support. A high score indicated a high level of overall social support.
Confidence in social support. To assess the confidence students felt in being able to
receive social support when needed, they were asked whether they felt they could count
on most people to help them when they ``were having a bad time''. Five response categories
were provided, ranging from ``yes, definitely'' to ``definitely not''. Scores ranged from 1 (no
confidence) to 5 (high confidence).

Results

Properties of the scales

The psychometric properties of each scale were examined by computing item-total
correlations and assessing overall internal consistency or reliability as reflected by Cronbach
alpha values. The two reported victimization scales contained items which correlated
significantly (p50?001) with their respective totals, each correlation exceeding 0?50.
Cronbach alpha coefficients were moderately high, being 0?87 (nˆ837) for the six-item
Victim Scale A and 0?83 (nˆ769) for the five-item Victim Scale B. The correlation between
the two victim scales was 0?75, dfˆ763, p50?001. In addition, point bi-serial correlations
were computed between values derived from the Victimization Index and the two victim
scales. Reporting being bullied weekly was coded as 2 and less than that as 1. The correlation
 Peer victimization and social support 61

with Victim Scale A was 0?56 (dfˆ830); for Victim Scale B, 0?58 (dfˆ765): in each case,
p50?001. These correlations supported the concurrent validity of the measures.
As expected, the GHQ also showed good reliability with an alpha coefficient of 0?94
(nˆ713); every item-total correlation exceeded 0?35. The Support Scale, derived by
summing scores for perceived support from each of the five sources, showed relatively low
internal consistency with alphaˆ0?69 (nˆ766). Item-total correlations, however, exceeded
0?40 for each of the items, indicating that each made a significant contribution to the total
score. Finally, scores from each scale showed very low correlations with age: Victim Scale A,
0?00; Victim Scale B, 70?01; GHQ, 0?02; Support Scale, 0?03. In each case, p40?05.

Level of reported victimization

To provide an estimate of the extent of peer victimization as reported by students, three
categories of respondents were created from scores on the Victimization Index: those
reporting that they had never been bullied during the current year; those who had been
bullied less than weekly by another student or students; and those who reported being bullied
weekly or more often. Results for boys and girls are given in Table 1.
From Table 1 it is evident that, as in previous surveys conducted in Australia, being bullied
was a common occurrence, with approximately half the students indicating that they had
been bullied at least once during the school year. A substantial minority of students were
identified as continually being bullied at school. The figures of 19?0 % of boys and 10?9 % of
girls being bullied weekly are somewhat lower than for those reported in a national survey
of 11,669 boys and 10,110 girls in the same age group attending Australian coeducational
schools. In that study, weekly bullying was reported by 21?4% of boys and 16?0% of girls
(Rigby, 1998d).
An inspection of responses to items on Victim Scale B showed that verbal forms of
harassment were the most common: of all students, 48?0% reporting having been called
hurtful names; 44?3% subjected to cruel teasing; 30?1% deliberately excluded; 24?2%
threatened with harm; and 23?7% hit or kicked. Boys and girls differed significantly in the
treatment they had received only on the last two items, with boys reporting being threatened
and physically bullied more frequently (p50?001).

Perceived social support

Respondents who believed they would receive social support from specified sources were
identified as those indicating that ``a lot'' or ``some help'' would be forthcoming if they had a
serious problem. The percentages of boys and girls in this category are given below in relation
to each source together with results for gender comparisons.
It is evident from Table 2 that most students felt that they are able to call on support from
someone when they have a serious problem at school. Broadly, students of both sexes

Table 1 Numbers and percentages of students reporting levels of victimization by peers

Not bullied Bullied less than once a week Bullied once a week or more
n (%) n (%) n (%)
Boys 206 (46?7) 151 (34?2) 84 (19?0)
Girls 243 (61?7) 108 (27?4) 43 (10?9)
Sex difference assessed by chi square ˆ 20?85 (df ˆ 1, p5 0?001).
62 K. Rigby

Table 2 Perceived availability of support from others: percentages indicating positive social
support
Teacher Best friend Students in Mother Father
class
Boys 44?2 64?5 39?3 79?1 72?0
Girls 41?9 85?1 50?6 80?8 67?7
Significance of sex n.s. 0?001 0?001 n.s. n.s.
difference
Positive social support was inferred from responses indicating that ``a lot'' or ``some help'' would be forthcoming
from specified sources if the respondent had a serious problem.
n.s., not significant. This varied slightly due to missing data but in each case exceed 407 for boys and 365 for girls.
Sex differences were assessed using the chi-square test (df ˆ1).

believed that support was more likely to be available from parents than from either teachers
or other students in one's class. For both sexes, mothers were seen as providing more support
than fathers (related samples t-test: for boys, tˆ3?71, dfˆ406, p50?001; for girls, tˆ7?78,
dfˆ359, p50?001).
There were some notable gender differences. An inspection of scores on the Overall
Support Scale showed that the mean score for girls was 18?69 (S.D.ˆ4?27; nˆ360) and for
boys, the mean score was 17?89 (S.D.ˆ3?65; nˆ406). Variances differed significantly, with
girls showing greater variability in perceived support (Levene's test: Fˆ5?31, p5 0?05.
Applying the t-test for unequal variances gave t ˆ 2?82, p5 0?05, indicating that on average
boys felt they had less support from others. A further inspection of Table 2 suggests
substantial gender differences in perceived support from best friends and other students, with
higher proportions of girls seeing support as likely to be forthcoming from these sources.

Relationship between being victimized and perceived social support

Correlations between degree of peer victimization and perceived social support were low
but in some cases statistically significant. The measure of overall social support correlated
70?10 with each of the two Victim Scales for boys; for girls, the correlations were 70?13
with Victim Scale A and 70?16 with Victim Scale B: all these correlations were significant at
the 0?05 level. An examination of correlations with specific sources of support indicated that
significant correlations with both measures of peer victimization were found only with
possible sources of support that existed at school. For both boys and girls significant negative
correlations were found between the measures of peer victimization and (i) perceived support
from best friend and (ii) perceived support from students in class. For girls alone significant
negative correlations were found with the measure of perceived support from teachers. It
must be emphasized that the obtained correlations, though significant, were small: none
exceeded 70?18 in magnitude.

Correlations with mental unwellness

The results for correlations between mental unwellness and (i) reported victimization and
(ii) perceived social support are given in Table 3.
If we examine the correlations given in Table 3 between the total GHQ Scale and (i) the
victim scales and (ii) the most general measure of social support (Overall Support) the
 Peer victimization and social support 63

Table 3 Correlations between measures of mental unwellness and (a) degree of reported
victimisation and (b) perceived social support
General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) measures
Somatic Anxiety Social Depression Total GHQ
Victim Scale A
Boys 0?14* 0?23** 0?11n.s. 0?19* 0?21*
Girls 0?25*** 0?38*** 0?23** 0?37*** 0?38***
Victim Scale B
Boys 0?14* 0?27*** 0?09n.s. 0?25*** 0?24***
Girls 0?31*** 0?42*** 0?32*** 0?37*** 0?43***
Teacher support
Boys 70?08n.s. 70?10n.s. 70?11n.s. 70?17** 70?14*
Girls 70?24** 70?22** 70?21** 70?18** 70?25***
Best friend support
Boys 70?01n.s. 70?07n.s. 70?08n.s. 70?04n.s. 70?06n.s.
Girls 70?14* 70?03n.s. 70?06n.s. 70?11n.s. 70?11n.s.
Students in class support
Boys 70?05n.s. 70?07n.s. 70?11n.s. 70?00n.s. 70?06n.s.
Girls 70?16** 70?16** 70?18** 70?15** 70?19**
Mother support
Boys 70?08n.s. 70?10n.s. 70?05n.s. 70?16** 70?12*
Girls 70?19*** 70?21** 70?16** 70?29*** 70?27***
Father support
Boys 70?08n.s. 70?20*** 70?10n.s. 70?30*** 70?22***
Girls 70?22*** 70?25*** 70?20*** 70?20*** 70?27***
Overall support
Boys 70?09n.s. 70?16** 70?13* 70?21** 70?18**
Girls 70?30*** 70?28** 70?26*** 70?31*** 70?35***
Overall confidence in support
Boys 70?12* 70?18* 70?07n.s. 70?21*** 70?19***
Girls 70?21*** 70?28*** 70?30*** 70?26*** 70?31***
For boys, n ˆ 297; for girls, n ˆ 284.
Significance levels: *** p 5 0?001; ** p 5 0?01; * p 5 0?05; n.s. ˆ not significant, p 4 0?05: all two-tailed tests.
See text for full descriptions of the health measures.

prediction that higher levels of victimization and low levels of social support are each
associated with relatively poor mental well-being is supported for both boys and girls at the
0?01 level (two-tailed test). In general, the correlations were not high. However, they are
notably higher for girls, being almost double the magnitude in each case. For example, the
correlation for girls between Victim Scale B and the GHQ is 0?43, while for boys it is only
0?24. Similarly, the correlation for girls with Overall Support is 70?35 and for boys it is
70?18. An inspection of correlations with specific measures suggests the closest relation
with being victimized for both sexes is with the Anxiety dimension of the GHQ.
For specific sources of social support, parents appear particularly important for well-being,
especially with regard to feelings of hopelessness. With boys the highest correlation is
between perceived support from father and the Depression subscale (r ˆ 70?30) while for
girls, the highest correlation is between Depression and perceived support from mother
(70?29): in both cases, p50?001. Thus, lower perceived support from these sources appears
64 K. Rigby

to be reliably associated with a greater sense of futility. It is also evident that although (as
indicated in Table 2) perceived support from teachers was comparatively uncommon
(reported by less than 45%), such support made a small but significant contribution to overall
mental well-being for both boys and girls (p50?05). Finally, it may be noted that while for
girls perceived support from other students in one's class was consistently related to less
adverse health outcomes across all the GHQ subscales and also with the total GHQ (r ˆ
70?19, p 5 0?01), none of the corresponding correlations was significant for boys. This
suggests that the well-being of girls but not boys is associated with feeling supported by others
in one's class.

Effects of victimization, social support and gender considered jointly

To investigate the specific effects of victimization, social support and gender on mental well-
being in the context of contributions from the other factors, multiple regression analyses
were employed with the total GHQ scores as the dependent variable. Although age had not
been found to relate significantly to any of the variables thus far examined, it also was
included as an independent variable, so that any contribution from this source could be
taken into account. Each of the two Victim Scales was included as an independent variable
in regression analysis in a different run. The results are given in Table 4.
Regardless of which Victim Scale was included, the results were similar. Both the measure
of reported victimization and degree of perceived social support were reliably associated with
the measure of mental well-being, after taking into account the age and gender of the
student. In the analyses conducted for both boys and girls separately, the beta coefficient for
reported victimization was in each case somewhat greater than for perceived support,
although the latter also made a significant contribution. The amount of variance accounted
for when gender was included in the regression was not high, being approximately 16%.
It is evident from the analyses including gender that being female accounted for a
substantial amount of the variance in mental well-being, with girls reporting being less well.
A comparison of results for boys and girls separately indicates that effects on mental health

Table 4 Results for multiple regression analyses showing regression of Victim Scales
(A and B), the Support Scale, age and gender on the GHQ scale
Standardized beta coefficients
Boys Girls Both sexes
{ { { { {
A B A B A B{
Measures
Victim 0?21** 0?23** 0?35** 0?39** 0?27** 0?30**
Support 70?17** 70?16* 70?27** 70?27** 70?22** 70?21**
Age 70?04n.s. 70?04n.s. 70?01n.s. 70?01n.s. 70?02n.s. 70?02n.s.
Sex (being female) Ð Ð 0?23** 0?23**
Multiple Rs 0?29 0?31 0?48 0?52 0?41 0?43
F 10?16** 10?46** 31?23** 34?65** 31?94** 34?10**
df 3,324 3,300 3,313 3,287 4,640 4,590
{
Column A results relate to Victim Scale A; column B results relate to Victim Scale B.
Significance levels as in Table 3.
 Peer victimization and social support 65

are much greater for girls, the multiple correlations for girls being around 0?50 compared with
those for boys of around 0?30. Both victimization and social support appear to be more
closely related to well-being among girls.

Evidence relating to a buffering effect

As suggested by the buffer hypothesis, we might expect that at high levels of victimization
students would be more affected by the degree of social support seen as available to them.
This was examined using two-way ANOVAs separately for boys and girls, in which the most
victimized students (reporting being bullied at least once a week, see Table 1) were
differentiated from others. In addition, students were categorized as having available high or
low levels of support using a median split on Overall Support scores. As in the multiple
regression analysis (see Table 4), significant effects (p50?01) were found for level of reported
victimization and for level of support. The interaction effect was not significant for either
sex. For boys the F ratio for the victim6support interaction term was 0?14 (df ˆ 1,336,
p40?05), while for girls, F ˆ 1?50 (df ˆ 1,320, p40?05). There was thus no support for the
view that the more victimized students benefited more (or less) from high levels of social
support.

Discussion

The results from this study indicate that, as hypothesized, the mental health of young
adolescents is related independently to the degree of bullying they experience at school and
also to the extent to which these students feel they can rely upon the support of others when
they have a serious problem. Students who report being bullied frequently and have low
social support appear to be at most risk of poor mental health. However, there was no
evidence suggesting that the perceived availability of social support affected frequently
victimized students more than others.
The results of the regression analyses enable us to conclude that being bullied and having
low social support may affect the mental health of students independently; that is, the effect
of one of these two factors on mental health cannot be explained by reference to the other.
Nevertheless, it remains possible that the two factors are mutually interactive. The
significant correlation between low social support and being bullied, especially where peer
support at school is concerned, though low, suggests this possibility. It also accords with
expectations. Children who have little or no support from others are clearly more vulnerable
to attack from those who may wish to bully them. Moreover, victimized children are
often despised by others as ``wimps'' and are considered unattractive as friends (Rigby and
Slee, 1993c).
The results from this cross-sectional survey do not enable one to establish which factors, if
any, have a causal status. It is possible that a low level of mental health may elicit both low
levels of social support and victimization by others. Students may be shunned by peers and
``picked on'' by others because they are seen as ``not normal''. They may also be bullied
because they lack social support. As indicated earlier, recent research based on longitudinal
studies has suggested that peer victimization may ``cause'' mental unwellness among
adolescent students (Rigby, 1998a) as well as among primary schoolchildren (Kochenderfer
and Ladd, 1996). Further longitudinal research is needed to examine the possible health
66 K. Rigby

consequences of peer victimization and low support independently as well as both operating
jointly.
The hypothesized relationships between mental well-being and the independent variables
(i) degree of victimization and (ii) perceived social support were confirmed for both sexes.
Yet some sex differences in the results should be observed. Notably, the two independent
variables explained far more variance in well-being for girls (approximately 25%) compared
with boys (approximately 9%). This suggests that the impact of these two factors,
victimization and social support, on well-being may be greater for female adolescents.
We may note also that level of reported well-being was significantly more negative for
females: a finding consistent with previous research on the well-being of adolescents
(Freydenberg, 1997). Yet, paradoxically, reported victimization was significantly less for girls
and social support significantly greater. We cannot therefore attribute the less positive mental
health of girls to them being bullied more often or their having less social support.
It may be, however, that even though adolescent girls see themselves as being bullied less
often than boys do, and having more social support than boys have, the impact of being
bullied and having low social support is greater. A recent study of the reported hurtfulness
of aggression by peers directed towards American schoolchildren aged 9±15 years suggests
that girls feel more hurt by such aggression, whether it be physical or social, than do boys
(Galen and Underwood, 1997). By ``social aggression'' the authors mean aggression ``aimed at
hurting others by damaging their relations with others'' (p. 591). Unlike boys, girls reported
that they did not find social aggression less hurtful than physical aggression. Given that social
bullying is considered to be more commonly experienced by girls, it may be that the
frequency of the reported bullying is less important than its nature and also the vulnerability
of the person being victimized in accounting for the more adverse consequences of bullying
for the mental health of girls.
We may conclude that where students are known to be frequently bullied by other
students, and more especially where they have little or no social support, they are at
increased risk of mental illness. It seems likely that the mental health of students can be
enhanced through an overall reduction in bullying in a school. Policies and practices should
be directed towards this end (see Sharp and Smith, 1994; Rigby, 1997a). Given the crucial
role that social support can play in increasing mental well-being, consideration should also be
given to how such social support can be increased, especially for students in particular need.
Curriculum content can be designed and introduced to encourage more cooperative and
helpful behaviour to counter bullying along lines suggested by Garrity et al. (1994). It should
be recognized that although comparatively few adolescents see teachers as sources of social
support, their support is positively related to mental health, and arguably its provision can
make an important contribution to individual student well-being. At the same time, it is
evident that students are more likely to seek help when they have serious problems from
other students. This provides justification for schools to encourage the development and
employment of peer support and student counselling resources (see Cowie and Sharp, 1996).

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgment is due to Australian Rotary Health who provided a grant to assist this
study, and also to Dr Phillip Slee from Flinders University for his advice in the design of the
project.
 Peer victimization and social support 67

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