ABSTRACT
After a general overview of country features - population, school system and distribution of resources - this chapter gives a brief history of the studies on school bullying in Italy, from 1993 when the anonymous questionnaire by Olweus was translated, to the more recent directions of bullying research. The nature of bullying has been investigated in five different cities in Italy (two in the north, one in the centre and two in the south). The average results confirm that bullying in Italian schools is very serious. Being bullied sometimes or more frequently in the last term is reported by 41.6 per cent of pupils in primary and 26.4 per cent in middle schools. Bullying other children occurs with 28 per cent of pupils in primary and 10.8 per cent in middle schools. The authors' opinion is that, besides some methodological differences between the Italian report and that of other European countries, in our culture some types of bullying seem to be more tolerated than in other western cultures.
