The statistics on bullying

The National Center for Education Statistics has released findings on the state of bullying in the U.S. as part of the 2022 school crime supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The first crime supplement to be released post-Covid, the survey encompasses public and private school, and both in-person and virtual bullying, and reports the findings from NCVS family members in grades 6-12/12-18 years old who were asked about school crime they experienced, including bullying. Results are presented in tables that show how bullying varies based on victims’ characteristics (ex: by gender, race, or household income) and by schools’ characteristics (ex: presence of gangs, security presence).

Results showed that 19.2% of all students reported being bullied. Bullying was highest for students in 6th grade (26.9%), for students who were two or more races (30.1%), for students in public vs private school (20% vs 14.5%), for rural students (23.8%), and in schools with 300 students or less (26.6%). The highest rates of bullying took place in classrooms and stairwells/hallways, with 41% of students thinking it would happen again. 31.5% reported bullying every 3-10 days. The most frequent type of bullying behavior was being a victim of a spread rumor (13%). Negative effects included lowered feelings about self (27.8%), and problems with schoolwork (19.7%).

The site also links to earlier years’ results of the same survey. The next survey is scheduled for 2025.

Source (Open Access): Thomsen, E., Henderson, M., Moore, A., Price, N., & McGarrah, M. W. (2024). Student Reports of Bullying: Results From the 2022 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey: (NCES 2024-109) US Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2024109