By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY
Half of U.S. high schoolers say they have bullied or teased someone at least once in the past year, and nearly half say they have been bullied in that time, one of the largest studies ever on bullying finds.
The study, to be released today, surveyed 43,321 teens ages 15 to 18, from 78 public and 22 private schools. It finds 50% said they had "bullied, teased or taunted someone at least once," and 47% had been "bullied, teased or taunted in a way that seriously upset me at least once."
The survey findings are from the Ethics of American Youth Survey by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, a non-profit based in Los Angeles that has surveyed teens on conduct and behavior every two years since 1992. This is the first time it has reported on bullying.
The survey is the largest the group has done and is much larger than others on bullying, says president Michael Josephson.
It also found that in the past 12 months:
•52% of students have hit someone in anger.
•28% (37% of boys, 19% of girls) say it's OK to hit or threaten a person who angers them.
"There's a tremendous amount of anger out there," Josephson says.
The survey also looked at other behaviors:
•60% of students said they had "cheated on a test," and 34% did so twice or more. Students at non-religious private schools cited the lowest percentage (33%) while 56% at religious schools said they cheated.
•27% of students said they "stole something from a store."
For those who study bullying, the data are "absolutely surprising and appalling," says Darcia Narvaez, associate professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame (Ind.), whose work focuses on young people's moral and character development.
Sally Kuykendall, assistant professor of health services at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, has studied bullying for almost a decade. She says kids are getting the message that "if you have a problem, you deal with it through violence. When children are exposed to violence, they're going to think that's the way to handle problems."
Kuykendall says media violence and domestic violence play a role in such attitudes.
Narvaez also points to child-rearing practices. Her research has found that children today often don't get enough "positive touch" in the form of skin-to-skin contact, which she says promotes well-being, a moral sense and more empathy. She says parents are holding their kids less than in the past and instead rely more on strollers and carriers.
"Self-regulation is affected by all these things," she says.
The 2010 study was completed last month, based on responses compiled in the first half of this year. The margin of error is plus or minus 1 percentage point.
Because the questions are identical to those from 2008, Josephson says, none of the questions in 2008 or 2010 directly asked about cyberbullying. He says such questions will be part of the next survey.