Almost half of the children in Romania have been victims of bullying, while over 51% of the surveyed children say the school doesn’t take this phenomenon seriously, according to a study published by Telefonul Copilului Association, cited by local Mediafax.

Some 72% of the respondents that have been victims of this phenomenon say that they’ve faced an indirect type of bullying, characterized by nasty words and untrue comments about them, their families, social status or ethnicity, 59.4% received nicknames, 47.3% were ignored or left out of the group, 43.3% received kicks or slaps and 32.2% were threatened.

The study also revealed that 76.4% of the children experienced negative states while they were bullied, such as anger, sadness, loneliness and shame, while 22% were indifferent. Half of bullying victims were aggressed by “one other children”, while 47.2% were aggressed by “a group of children”. Half of the interviewed children said they have been bullied several times a year, 17.2% - each week, 13.2% - every day and 11.9% - every month.

Over 57% of the respondents confirmed that the bullying took place in the classroom, 33.2% in the hallway, 32.5% in the school yard, 29.3% near the education unit, 29.2% in the online environment, 20.8% on the playground, 14.2% on the mobile phone via text messages and 10.1% in the school’s bathroom, according to the study.

The study was conducted between March and June 2014 on a sample of 2,000 students.

Bullying is the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively dominate others.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com