ABSTRACT
We have all been teased, teased other people, and witnessed teasing. In a study of 7-and 11-year-old children, over 96% indicated that they had been teased and over 50% confessed to teasing others (Mooney, Cresser, & Blatchford, 1991). In another study, 13% of nearly 16,000 students in 6th through 10th grade indicated that they had bullied other children, 10.6% said that they had been bullied, and 6.3% reported that they had both bullied and been bullied (Nansel et al., 2001). In a recent national study of bullying among middle-school children, 39% of 3749 children indicated that they had been bullied within the last 2 months, and 31% reported that they had bullied someone within the past 2 months (Kowalski & Limber, 2005). Similar statistics have been reported when students are asked how often they are verbally or physically harassed in a given week (Nishina & Juvonen, 2005). Instances of bullying in the workplace are also not uncommon. Among U.S. and British samples, respectively, 30% and 36% of employees reported being bullied at work (Rayner, Hoel, & Cooper, 2002; Rayner & Keashley, 2005).1 Clearly, teasing and bullying are quite ubiquitous.
