Bullying in Greek primary and secondary schools

The problem of school bullying among Greek primary and secondary school children was investigated by using a translated version of the Olweus Questionnaire with a total of 1,758 students, mainly aged 10-14, from 20 schools in the greater Thessaloniki area. Overall, 8.2 percent of all students were victims, 5.8 percent were bullies and 1.1 percent were bully/victims. In line with earlier findings, more boys were identified as bullies, whereas no sex differences emerged for rates of victimization. Separate results for primary school pupils revealed that boys and girls were equally self-identified as bullies. Younger students were more at risk of being bullied. The most common type of bullying was 'general name-calling'. Significant sex differences in types of victimization emerged only for physical bullying, which was more common in boys, and for spreading malicious rumours, which was more common in girls. Survey results were similar to those of other countries with regard to class and gender of the bully and location of bullying. Surprisingly, almost 25 percent of victims reported being victimized in the gym class.