ABSTRACT
Bullying is recognized as one of the most signižcant public health concerns facing children in the United States today. Involvement in bullying among elementary and middle school students is quite prevalent with students assuming roles such as bully, victim, bully-victim, and various bystander roles (Espelage & Horne, 2008). Current estimates suggest that nearly 30% of American students are involved in bullying in one of these capacities (Nansel et al., 2001). Specižcally, žndings from this nationally representative sample indicated that among 6th to 10th graders, 13% had bullied others, 11% had been bullied, and 6% had both bullied others and been bullied. Bullying involvement has also been implicated as a predictor of school shootings. In the United States, an investigation was commissioned in 2000 by the Secret Service; family and friends of students involved in 37 incidents of targeted school shootings and school attacks between 1974 and 2000 were interviewed. Researchers discovered that 71% of the perpetrators had been victims of bullying (Vossekuil, Fein, Reddy, Borum, & Modzeleski, 2002).
