9.5% of Primary students (6 to 12 years old) in Spain have been victims of bullying and 4.5% have harassed other students at some time. These percentages are more or less repeated in the case of cyberbullying, an increasingly frequent scourge at younger ages and which does not let children rest even when they are at home, away from their peers. The problem is not addressed by the feeling of impunity that bullies have: 90% of students who witness bullying do not stand up to the aggressor.
The data comes from the State Study of School Coexistence in Primary Education, prepared by the Ministry of Education after interviewing more than 37,000 students between the ages of six and 12, teachers, parents, directors and guidance teams. In this work, the first to be carried out at a national level and with these dimensions, schools from all the autonomous communities and also from Ceuta and Melilla have participated. Minister Pilar Alegría presented her main results this Wednesday, at the Plenary Session of the State Observatory for School Coexistence.
The work, coordinated by Juan Carlos Torrego, professor at the University of Didactics and School Organization at the University of Alcalá de Henares, points out that, although in Spain there are “low levels of conflict” and both teachers and families make “a very positive assessment of coexistence” (with scores of more than 8 out of 10), “obstacles prevail that must be addressed, for which reason the prevention and detection of these situations is essential due to the important consequences that they can cause”.
One of these obstacles is bullying, although the data provided by this study is much lower than others previously carried out – the ANAR Foundation says that 25% of students suffer bullying, the NGO Educar es Todo places it at 22%. , the NACE association estimates it at 20%…-, although it is true that this research focuses only on the Primary stage, where aggressions are lower than in Secondary although they are growing more and more, especially to 10, 11 and 12 years.
It is surprising that, when the minimum age allowed to access social networks is set at 13 or 14 years, there are 9.2% of children under this age who say they have been teased or threatened by a classmate through mobile, Internet or videogames.
Another 4.6% admit to having been the author of these jokes, threats or lies against other colleagues through these same digital media that they should not legally access. In other words, students recognize that they bully through social networks more than face to face at school.
The authors believe that the fact that the percentage of students who perceive bullying is double the percentage of students who consider themselves to be bullying may be due either to the fact that the same student may be the harasser of more than one classmate” or to “the lack of recognition of the responsibility on the part of the harassers, who are not aware that they are harming or hurting the dignity of their companions».
That children are not mature enough to realize that what they are doing is wrong is also evidenced by all the analysis carried out on witnesses: there are 10.6% of students who admit to having witnessed samples of cyberbullying through Other children.
How did they react? 7% admit that they did not know what to do and very few notified their parents (20%) or teachers (30%). They did not even discuss it with other colleagues (14%). There are even fewer who confronted their aggressor (9.8%), which means that 90% of witnesses to bullying cases do not stand up to the bullies.
82% of the students surveyed did not even feel bad when they witnessed the aggression, which shows that there is a certain feeling of not distinguishing what is right from what is wrong.
In fact, there are a minority of students who, on a theoretical level, say that if they witnessed a bullying situation, they would try to help the victim because he is their friend. Only 37% affirm it. Only 33% say they would talk to those who mess with that partner. And 43% would tell the teachers.
This passivity detected in children does not appear, however, when they are asked what they would do if an adult tried to harm them. Here, the majority would tell their parents (80%) or teachers (51%), which suggests that students of this age are much more aware of adult aggression towards them than of those that may occur among minors themselves.
And that, according to this study, child sexual abuse is much rarer than bullying. The teachers, directors and counselors consulted maintain that the first is “a non-existent reality in their centers”, although a study by Save the Children states that, in Europe, between 14% and 28% of girls and between 4% and 12% of children have suffered sexual abuse in their childhood.
The conflicts that abound most in schools have to do, according to the students, with disruption in the classroom and annoyances between classmates. Their parents believe that the situations that occur the most in the centers are non-compliance with classroom rules and class interruptions.
The teachers add to these problems the disrespect of the students, the fights, the loss of time in class, the boycott, the permanent noise…
In general, the evaluation that students make of their teachers’ abilities to create conditions that favor coexistence is quite good, more than that considered by their parents. In more than half of the centers they have mediation programs and in 24% it is the students themselves who act as mediators, intervening directly to talk with each other and try to resolve conflicts, always supervised by an adult.
Teachers complain, above all, of the bureaucratic burden that accompanies the management of coexistence in schools. Spain, according to the TALIS 2018 report, has the lowest percentage in Europe -60%- of teachers who have received training in their formal education in student behavior and classroom management.
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