ABSTRACT
The first large international study on bullying brought together 14 countries to collaborate on a common study. The English term bullying scores high on physical and verbal aggression, moderately high on social exclusion while the term prepotenza used in Italy scores higher on physical aggression but lower on non-physical bullying types. What is relevant to the perspective is that bullying that exists at lower levels are not simply determined by international cultural dynamics. Hofstede identified dimensions by which cultures around the world differedone of the most researched dimensions is collectivism-individualism orientation. The relational aggression, as compared to overt aggression, may be considered more of a threat in collectivist cultures since they value interconnectedness. Students in individualistic cultures tend to have an agentic orientation which refers to goals aimed at achieving power, status, or influence in relationships. A meta-analysis conducted by Oyserman et al revealed that Americans and Australians were both higher in individualism and lower in collectivism than were Japanese.
