Bullying as a Sociocultural Phenomenon and Its Relation to Personality Traits among Younger School Children

Abstract

Bullying – harassment, intimidation and maltreatment of other (in most cases, of the weaker) members of the collective – has become the object of close attention among anthropologists, psychologists, ethologists, and sociologists in the last decades. The article shows how widespread this phenomenon is in human societies. The goal of the study is the analysis of bullying as a sociocultural phenomenon and the examination of the specificities of harassment in collectives of younger school children. The authors argue that all children of 8–10 years old are able to employ bullying techniques, although some 13% of them can be considered real bullers. The most common at that age (about 40%) are verbal types of humiliation, as the safest ones that allow the buller to get away unpunished. After them there follow the physical aggression and the moral crushing (about 20% each). Prohibitions and ostracism, which require coordinated collective action, are at the last place (about 15%). The authors indicate that in order to work out effective measures against this phenomenon, a good knowledge of the sociocultural context and an active participation of anthropologists is necessary.