Incidence of bullying and victimisation among adolescents in New Zealand

It has been established that bullying and victimisation have negative outcomes for those involved. However, this problem has received little research attention in New Zealand samples, particularly with longitudinal designs. The incidence of four types bullying was assessed in a large adolescent New Zealand sample including; traditional bullying inside the school, bullying outside the school, bullying via text message and bullying via the internet. The same categorisation of victimisation was also assessed. The overall rates of bullying and victimisation appeared elevated relative to international samples but traditional school-based bullying was more frequent than text or internet bullying. No gender differences were found. Differences for ethnic group differences were found only for specific types of bullying with Māori students reporting more traditional school and text bullying, and more text-based victimisation than other ethnic groups.

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This published article from the New Zealand Journal of Psychology is reproduced with permission. This publication is available from the New Zealand Psychological Society website at https://www.psychology.org.nz/journal-archive/72176-NZJP-Vol-44-No-2...