Bullying and Special Education

Abstract

In high school, there are many difficulties that children must face. Grades, assignments, and extracurricular activities are just to name a few. There is one topic, however, that can be detrimental to a child with disabilities’ health and mental state. This has to do with bullying. Bullying can be found as early as elementary schools, although this can have serious effects as the children grow into young adults. Although it is common to see in multiple school settings, there is not enough research to show how students in self-contained settings are affected by bullying. Bullying is disproportionately represented by special education students. There is not enough research to show how students in self-contained settings are affected by bullying. The articles being used in this literature review are as follows: Comparative Study of Bullying Victimization Among Students in General and Special Education, Exposure to bullying among students with autism spectrum conditions: A multi-informant analysis of risk and protective factors, Bullying and Students With Disabilities: Examination of Disability Status and Educational Placement, and Bullying Experiences, Anxiety About Bullying, and Special Education Placement. Using the Florida International University (FIU) website, the articles were obtained with the ProQuest database. With these articles, bullying will be delved into from this review to see the effects it has on students with disabilities based on the data collected.

Abstract

In high school, there are many difficulties that children must face. Grades, assignments, and extracurricular activities are just to name a few. There is one topic, however, that can be detrimental to a child with disabilities’ health and mental state. This has to do with bullying. Bullying can be found as early as elementary schools, although this can have serious effects as the children grow into young adults. Although it is common to see in multiple school settings, there is not enough research to show how students in self-contained settings are affected by bullying. Bullying is disproportionately represented by special education students. there is not enough research to show how students in self-contained settings are affected by bullying. The articles being used in this literature review are as follows: Comparative Study of Bullying Victimization Among Students in General and Special Education, Exposure to bullying among students with autism spectrum conditions: A multi-informant analysis of risk and protective factors, Bullying and Students With Disabilities: Examination of Disability Status and Educational Placement, and Bullying Experiences, Anxiety About Bullying, and Special Education Placement. Using the Florida International University (FIU) website, the articles were obtained with the ProQuest database. With these articles, bullying will be delved into from this review to see the effects it has on students with disabilities based on the data collected.

Introduction

There is no specific definition for what bullying is, because it has multiple factors and different issues that cause bullying and the effects from it. It stated that, “the U.S. Center of Disease and Control identify bullying as peer-to-peer bullying as aggressive behaviors that are not wanted, imbalanced and intend to inflict harm on youth” (Rose, 2015, pg. 425). This can be in the form of physical or psychological harm. Bullying can take different forms, either direct or indirect. For both forms, they cause harm to the students that are victims from it. Researchers have conducted multiple study groups in order to find out how students have been victimized, what form of bullying took place, what were the effects from bullying (physical or psychological), and any other relevant information obtained from the studies.

Bullying for Students with Disabilities

There have been studies completed in order to compare victimization from students who are apart of the general education population, and students who have a disability. In two separate studies, there were different populations grouped from different schools across the nation. These included elementary, middle and high schools. There were different age groups, races and genders involved in this study. The studies involved special education students that were in a self-contained setting and a resource room setting, along with their regular peers’ part of the general education population. Hartley (2015) recorded specific bullying events with students by asking them the event that occurred and what the bully did (direct or indirect). Saia (2009) used the Bully Victimization Scale and The School Violence Anxiety Scaleto take in to account the age ranges, genders, cultures and races. It also compares if students experienced being just the victim, or if they became a bully due to victimization. Rose (2014) studied a group from grades sixth through twelfth grade with these different types of disabilities: specific learning disability, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Other Health Impairment (OHI), Intellectual disabilities, emotional-behavioral disorders, deafness, visual impairments and those with traumatic brain injuries. Each group had their own surveys and questionnaires that requested information from the students and parents to get more insight as to what they consider bullying, have they experienced it previously, and so on. There were also interviews done that took approximately fifteen to twenty minutes for children to complete with a teacher. Teachers would ask students questions, and they would write down their verbal response. Studies found that students with special needs experienced more physical and emotional harm than that of their general education peers. In Saia (2009), students identified in the special education population as a whole group were reported to have significantly higher levels of anxiety due to victimization than that of their general education peers. In general, these studies have shown students with disabilities have significantly higher chances of being bullied and becoming victimized than their typical students in the general education population. In fact, some students with disabilities can become bullies themselves due to victimization. It states that, “students with disabilities experience higher rates of victimization and higher rates of fighting” (Rose, 2015, pg. 437).

Effects on Bullying of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

In the other studies being reviewed, their target was to identify students in special education with specific disabilities (this one focused on those with ASD) were targeted to find out how victimization effects the students. Hebron (2014) states that students with ASD were three times more likely to have exposure for bullying than that of students with dyslexia. In this study completed, parent and teacher surveys and questionnaires were used to obtain data. These scores were used to determine if students with ASD have been bullied sometime throughout their life, and what effects a child may find if bullying is frequently seen in their school, or if they are taken out of a situation where they are constantly bullied. This is to see positive and negative relationships associated between the two study groups. The results showed that the parent groups studied had much higher percentages of reporting their child as a victim of bullying than the teacher groups. It states, “they are likely to reflect the very different environments in which teachers and parents see children” (Hebron, 2014, pg. 23). The study showed that negative relationships to bullying had an impact on behavior problems and becoming isolated from their group of peers. In positive relationships, both teachers and parents agreed that attending a special school where bullying is less observed can help a student feel less like a victim.

There were several limitations to these studies that is important to recognize. There was sampling bias noticed in these studies. This is because the researchers were looking for specific group: students in special education, whether they were in self contained settings or in resource rooms. This is important to note because, “not all students had an equal chance to participate in the study, and the sample statistics may not reflect the true population” (Hartley, 2015, p. 190). Although surveys were given to assess bullying for typical peers in the general education population, not as much data was needed from them as their counterparts. The studies also became fixed on these students because of their disabilities. Therefore, they were small sample sizes. These studies had many surveys and questionnaires that asked students and parents their experiences of bullying, but there were no observations completed in order to see bullying going on in the school setting.

These studies have shown different levels if bullying as well as the population who it affects. Students with disabilities have a higher chance of being bullied than their general education peers. They are more at-risk, and although this has been noted by researchers, many are unaware of the solutions that can be done in order to lower the percentages of victimization. It is clear from all the researchers used in this review that more studies need to be completed in order to see the effects of bullying while observing students being victims in the school environment.

References

Hartley, M. T., Bauman, S., Nixon, C. L., & Davis, S. (2015). Comparative Study of Bullying Victimization Among Students in General and Special Education. Exceptional Children, 81(2), 176–193. doi: 10.1177/0014402914551741

Hebron, J., & Humphrey, N. (2014). Exposure to bullying among students with autism spectrum conditions: A multi-informant analysis of risk and protective factors. Autism, 18(6), 618–630. doi: 10.1177/1362361313495965

Rose, C. A., Stormont, M., Wang, Z., Simpson, C. G., Preast, J. L., & Green, A. L. (2015). Bullying and Students with Disabilities: Examination of Disability Status and Educational Placement. School Psychology Review, 44(4), 425–444. doi: 10.17105/spr-15-0080.1

Saia, D. M., Saylor, C. F., Allen, R. A., & Arnau, P. L. (2009). Bullying Experiences, Anxiety About Bullying, and Special Education Placement. JAASEP, 38–50.