Review of the article: Adult recognition of school bullying situations.

Hazler, R। J., Miller, D. L., Carney, J. V., and Green, S. (2001)

Halzer, Miller, Carney, and Green (2001) conducted an empirical study of a professional’s ability to differentiate between normal conflict and bullying। The study involved 251 teachers and counselors, who were asked to judge the severity of 21 scenarios (Halzer, et al, 2001). The scenarios depicted situations that included bullying and non-bullying conflict, in addition to different scenario combinations (Halzer, et al 2001). The results of study indicate that adults view physical conflicts as bullying, even when it’s not (Halzer, et al, 2001). Additionally, Hazler, et al (2001) found that the participants in their study saw physical conflict or the threat of physical conflict as more severe than emotional/social or verbal abuse (Halzer, et al, 2001).

The 251 participants of the study were professional teachers (N=209) and counselors (N=42) who work with youth on a daily basis (Halzer, et al 2001)। The population of the study was comprised of 63 males and 188 females who were Caucasians (92%), African-American (6%), and Hispanic (2%) professionals ranging in age from 20 to 67, with a mean age of 40 (Hazler, et al, 2001). For this study, Hazler, et al (2001) created the Bullying Situations Identifications Instruments, which is comprised of 21 brief scenarios with situations ranging from repeated bullying, harm done to other, and unfair match.

The results were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science or a hand calculator (Hazler, et al 2001)। Hazler, et al (2001) used item difficulty and item discrimination as the means of statistically evaluating the results. The calculation of item difficulty was based off the basic percentage of how many participants correctly identified specific scenarios as bullying or not bullying (Hazler, et al, 2001). Hazler, et al (2001) stated, “Item discrimination was accomplished by commonly accepted statistical procedures.” Unfortunately there is no indication of which procedures they are talking about.

Based upon their findings, Hazler, et al (2001) reported that when physical threat or abuse was present the professionals were more likely to identify the situation as bullying, even thought it might not truly bullying based conflicts or non-bullying based conflicts (i।e. a conflicted between two people of equal status). It was noted in the article that physical characteristics made it harder for the professionals to judge an encounter as anything other than a bullying based scenario (Hazler, et al, 2001). When it came to identifying verbal and social/emotional abuse, the professionals were less likely to properly identify the scenario as a bullying based encounter (Hazler, et al, 2001).

While the study had a strong sample size, its lack of ethnic and gender diversity make it difficult to extrapolate the results out to the general population। Further complicating the applicability of the study is the lack of information concerning the geographic local. Additionally, no information is presented on the socioeconomic of the school districts the professionals were recruited from. As Twemlow & Sacco (2008) point out, socioeconomics can impact how the professional staff view and understand bullying behaviors.

The authors of the study created a testing tool with 21 scenarios to test the participants’ ability to recognize bullying situations। The fact that they conducted several pilot studies of the testing tool strengths the potential validity of the tool. Unfortunately, in the interpretation of the data, it is difficult to interpret or trust their results since the authors neglected to include a definitive explanation of which statistical tool they used. Without knowing which static procedures used it is impossible to establish whether or not any errors were made or if the data was appropriately interpreted.

Hazler, et al (2001) provide a heuristically interesting article, one that provides possible insight into areas of weakness in the battle against school based bullying। Unfortunately, the lack of ethnic and gender variability, lack of geographic and socioeconomic information, and the neglected information on the statistics procedures used limit the overall applicability of this article to the general populations.

Hazler, R. J., Miller, D. L., Carney, J. V., and Green, S. (2001). Adult recognition of school bullying situations. Educational Research Vol 4 No 2 pp. 133-146.