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School Bullying: The Intolerable Evil in 

Children’s Growth 
 

Longjun Zhou 

Jiangsu Second Normal University, Nanjing 211200, Jiangsu, China 

“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are di-

vided.” 

–Albus Dumbledore 

S a result of the fundamental economic, cultural, and social trans-

formations of the past several years, the structure and order of socie-

ty face the challenge of a perpetually growing anomie. In education, 

the growing occurrence of school bullying is exemplified by the perpetrators’ 

younger ages and use of violence, as well as the aggravated consequences. 

The alarming prevalence of school bullying has not only aroused attention of 

the public and the media, but also prompted increased academic debate and 

study on the subject. 

School bullying, in its broadest sense, refers to harmful behavior on 

campus committed by teachers, students, or people from outside the school 

against any individual who violates social norms. School bullying is a term 

used to describe the physically and mentally harmful behaviors inflicted on 

students by their school peers or outsiders on campus or occasionally outside 

of school. School bullying is defined in Zhang’s (2011) study as harmful be-

haviors among students or a student’s long-term exposure to violence im-

posed by one or more schoolmates; it can take many forms, including physi-

cal, verbal, social, online, and sexual bullying on campus. Whatever defini-

tion you use, school bullying causes varying degrees of harm to students, 

families, and schools. Individually, it could cause severe physical and mental 

 

 

 
 

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BECE, Vol.12, No.1, 2022 1544 

trauma to victims. Some of them may be beaten so severely by their class-

mates that they must be hospitalized for treatment; others may become men-

tally ill because of the constant fear; and still others may undergo irreversible 

personality changes. As a result, bullying victimization can have a significant 

negative impact on the bullied student’s long-term development. When 

school bullies become addicted to violence, they may believe they are the 

“bosses” on their campus and end up as juvenile criminals. Bullying victimi-

zation incidents in schools disrupt normal school operations. When there is 

an incident of vicious school bullying, school leaders and teachers must de-

vote a significant amount of time and energy to dealing with it. With the 

speed of the internet, once it’s out there, it can spread quickly and hurt the 

school’s reputation. 

How to prevent and reduce bullying in schools has become a major 

topic in the educational world. Numerous nations have developed effective 

prevention techniques to combat this problem. Norway, for instance, imple-

mented a zero-tolerance program for bullying and released the Anti-Bullying 

Declaration. Australia established a specific government institution to assist 

schools in addressing bullying victimization and annually observes “Anti-

Bullying Day” on the third Friday of March. The United States and Japan 

have passed anti-bullying legislation to execute comprehensive anti-bullying 

tactics (Hu & Li, 2019). In the two 2017 sessions (the National People’s 

Congress, NPC, and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, 

CPPCC), legislators and deputies in China have introduced a series of mo-

tions on the prevention of school bullying, with a focus on optimizing the 

school moral education program, enacting specialized laws, adjusting the age 

of criminal responsibility, reinforcing punishment, and constructing a third-

party coping mechanism (Zhang, 2017). These motions propose to: strength-

en moral education and integrate it into intellectual education on a daily basis; 

maximize the school’s monitoring coverage, as any hidden location on cam-

pus could be the site of bullying victimization; and coordinate the school se-

curity management and the public security management of the surrounding 

communities in order to improve the internal and external environment of the 

school and construct a bullying-free campus. In addition, it is underlined that 

parents should share responsibilities for the prevention and management of 

school bullying. They should embrace a democratic approach to parenting 

and set a good example for their children by exhibiting moral behavior. 

When children experience issues in their peer connections, parents should be 

available to talk with them and offer advice on how to develop harmonic and 

amicable relationships as well as how to defend themselves. 

It is vital to understand the various elements impacting school bully-

ing and bullying victimization through evidence-based inquiry to design ap-

propriate preventative and intervention approaches. The Influences of Teach-

ers, Students, and School Climate on Bullying Victimization: Evidence from 

China in this issue adds to the empirical experience by examining the rela-

tionship between bullying victimization and intervention factors like teacher 

support, students’ sense of belonging, classroom disciplinary climate, and 



 

BECE, Vol.12, No.1, 2022 1545 

cooperation and competition in the Chinese context using PISA 2018 China 

data and binary logit regression analyses (Zhu & Teng, 2022). According to 

the research, a student’s sense of belonging significantly lessens the negative 

effects of bullying victimization; teacher emotional, informational, and in-

strumental support moderates school bullying; and a disciplinary, coopera-

tive school environment is a strong support for anti-bullying initiatives. From 

an educational setting’s point of view, it has implications for making bully-

ing less harmful and coming up with different ways to help victims. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References 

Byun, S. Y. (2014). Shadow education and academic success in Republic of Korea. In 

Korean education in changing economic and demographic contexts (pp. 39-58). 

Springer, Singapore. 

Hu, Y. & Li, J. (2019). Who are being bullied? An empirical study on the influence fac-

tors of school bullying among Chinese middle school students. Best Evidence in 

Chinese Education, 2(1):171-192. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15354/bece.19.ar1039  

Zhang, G. P. (2011). A sociological analysis of school bullying. Contemporary Youth Re-

search, 2011(08):73-76+66. 

Zhang, Y. (2017). The status quo, causes, and prevention of school bullying. Journal of 

Guangxi Young Cadre College, 2017(5):76-79. 

Zhu, Y., & Teng, Y. (2022). Influences of teachers, students and school climate on bully-

ing victimization: Evidence from China. Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 

12(1):1547-1571. Doi: https://doi.org/10.15354/bece.22.or065  

 

 

 

 

Correspondence to:  

Longjun Zhou, Ph.D. 

Jiangsu Second Normal University 

Nanjing 211200 
Jiangsu 

China 

E-mail: E-mail: 294437034@qq.com 

Conflict of Interests: None. 

Doi: 10.15354/bece.22.co015 

 

https://doi.org/10.15354/bece.19.ar1039
https://doi.org/10.15354/bece.22.or065
mailto:294437034@qq.com

