"... und es wird immer und immer schlimmer!" – Zur Unterscheidung von Bullying und Viktimisierung in der weiterführenden Schule

Studies of children who are the frequent targets of peers’
aggressive acts have been guided by two differing research
traditions, namely the “bully/victim” and the “general
victimization” traditions. Although the terms “bullying” and
“victimi-zation” are often used interchangeably, we argue, that the
underlying constructs differ substantially. Bullying is
characterized by systematic, repeated attacks and the asymmetry of
power between bully and victim. For general victimization such
features are irrelevant. Moreover both concepts differentiate by
focussing on group- verses individual-level phenomena. In order to
contrast both con-structs empirically, we investigated 2750 pupils
from 7th and 8th grade in 89 schools in Munich and Southern
Bavaria. Our results showed that bully/victim experiences were
correlated to both, relational victimization and physical
vic-timization. The non overlapping properties of the constructs,
however, are best understood in the context of gender differences.