A Quarter of Students Report Being Bullied, Survey Finds

November 3, 2017

A quarter of students in grades five through twelve report being bullied, a survey by San Francisco-based YouthTruth Student Survey finds.

Drawing on anonymous responses from a 180,000 students in thirty-seven states, the report, Learning From Student Voice: Bullying, found that 22 percent of males, 30 percent of females, and 44 percent of students who identify in another way reported being bullied. While the findings are consistent with previous research, the report provides insights into how student experiences vary across demographic groups.

Across all demographic groups, 73 percent of students who were bullied also reported being verbally harassed. In addition, female students and those born female but who identify otherwise were more likely to be bullied socially and socially harassed, compared to 45 percent of male students.

The survey also found that almost half of all bullied students — 44 percent — cite appearance as the reason they were bullied, while 17 percent report being bullied because of their race or skin color and 15 percent report being bullied because of their perceived sexual orientation. Male students and those who identify as other than male or female were slightly more likely to report being bullied for their perceived sexual orientation, with 20 percent of male and 45 percent of students who identify in another way being bullied for how they were perceived by others, compared to 9 percent of female students.

“Bullying is an issue that can often be difficult for students to talk about, which heightens the importance of anonymous, candid student feedback,” said YouthTruth executive director Jen Wilka. “These findings illustrate that bullying is prevalent in the lives of many students, and that some students may be experiencing bullying differently than their peers. All students have the right to feel safe at school. We hope that this data helps to spark conversations and inform anti-bullying efforts.”

Read more at PhilanthropyNewsDigest.org, or learn more about the survey at YouthTruthSurvey.org.

Thousands of schools nationwide have made Anonymous Alerts® their tool of choice to combat bullying and safety concerns. Anonymous Alerts® is the first and only truly anonymous two-way communications service that empowers students to ‘stand up and report it’ by engaging in trusted, private, and encrypted school staff communications. Students can submit safety concerns related to bullying, cyberbullying, cyber harassment, mental health, drug and alcohol use/dealing, depression, weapons on campus, or other issues which may warrant immediate attention.

Learn more about the Anonymous Alerts anti-bullying app at PRNewswire.com.