Nearly half the sixth graders in two Los Angeles-area public schools say they were bullied by classmates during a five-day period, UCLA researchers report in the first study to examine daily school harassment and the first to examine the effects of witnessing other students being bullied.

The UCLA researchers studied 192 students in two ethnically diverse, urban schools.

In one school, 47 percent of the sixth graders reported being bullied on at least one of these days; at the other school, 46 percent reported being bullied at least once.

The study, published March 25, 2005 in the March/April issue of the journal Child Development, found that the most common types of harassment were name-calling and physical aggression such as kicking and shoving.

"Bullying is a problem that large numbers of kids confront on a daily basis at school; it's not just an issue for the few unfortunate ones," says Jaana Juvonen, UCLA professor of psychology, chair of developmental psychology and co-author of the study. "We knew a small group gets picked on regularly, but we were surprised how many kids reported at least one incident. We didn't know how much bullying we would find over a few random days."

Bullying includes name-calling, making fun of others, spreading nasty rumors and physical aggression. Verbal harassment was more than twice as common as physical in the study. Bullying occurs in one form or another across ethnic groups and income brackets, Juvonen says.

"Our data show that children are emotionally affected on the days they get picked on, regardless of whether it's 'harmless' name-calling or joking around," Juvonen says. "The students who were beat up and those who were called names were equally bothered. Kids reported feeling humiliated, anxious or disliking school on days when they reported incidents, which shows there is no such thing as 'harmless' name-calling or an 'innocent' punch."

Students filled out written surveys, describing any bullying that day that they experienced or observed. The study was done at the end of each school day, says Adrienne Nishina, postdoctoral scholar at UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, a graduate of the UCLA clinical psychology program and lead author of the study. While other bullying studies have asked questions like, "How frequently have you been picked on?" the UCLA study asked students what happened today, she says. Sixty-six percent of students at one school, and 42 percent at the other, witnessed someone else getting bullied, Nishina and Juvonen report.

"A lot of kids are not only getting picked on, but also witnessing classmates getting picked on," Nishina says. Students felt more sympathy for the ones who were harassed verbally than physically, according to Nishina.

Students who reported getting picked on also reported increased humiliation and anger, while students who saw a classmate picked on reported increased anxiety and disliked school more. When students both experienced and observed bullying, witnessing others being harassed shielded the youth from feeling humiliated or angry, Nishina and Juvonen found.

"When kids pay attention to their environment, witnessing bullying often makes them feel bad. Even incidents that adults may not consider severe can affect kids who see them happening to their peers." Juvonen says.

"What happens if school bullying keeps occurring on a long-term basis? If kids continue to get harassed over time, they become more psychologically vulnerable. Those who get repeatedly victimized are most at risk for developing psychological problems."

In a second study, published in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Nishina, Juvonen and UCLA developmental psychology graduate student Melissa Witkow report that middle school students who are bullied in school are likely to feel depressed, lonely and miserable, which in turn makes them more vulnerable to further bullying incidents.

Harassment at school interferes with the ability to learn, Nishina says.

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