Observations of bullying in the playground and in the classroom

The present study employed naturalistic observations to compare bullying an d victimization in the playground and in the classroom. The results indicat ed that there were more opportunities to observe aggression and receive and initiate aggression in the playground than in the classroom. The frequency of bullying was higher in the playground (4.5 episodes per hour) than in t he classroom (2.4 episodes per hour). The nature of bullying reflected the constraints of the context (i.e. direct bullying was more prevalent in the playground and indirect bullying was more prevalent in the classroom). Bein g at the receiving end of aggression was more likely to occur in the playgr ound as compared to the classroom. Nonaggressive children were more likely to bully in the playground, whereas aggressive children were more likely to bully in the classroom. There was no difference across context in the prop ortion of episodes of reinforcement with peers present or in the rate of pe er and teacher intervention. The results highlight the necessity of a syste mic intervention programme that addresses not only the individual character istics of bullies and victims, but also the roles of the peer group, teache rs and the school.