Bullying and peer victimization: position paper of the Society for Adolescent Medicine.

The scientific literature on aggressive peer relations akes use of several different terms, including bullying, arassment and victimization. Although there may be subtle ifferences between these terms, they are all used to refer to ehavior that is 1) aggressive or intended to harm; 2) carried ut repeatedly and over time; and 3) occurs in an interperonal relationship where a power imbalance exists [1]. A istinction is also made between direct and indirect behavors. Direct bullying includes physical and verbal attacks or ggression (kicking, pushing, name-calling) while indirect ullying involves behaviors such as ignoring and gossiping hich often rely on a third party [2]. Indirect bullying is also eferred to as relational bullying, in that it is “aggression irected at damaging a social relationship” [3]. Throughout his paper, we will use the term “bullying” to refer to ehaviors meeting the three criteria above, and “victim” or victimization” to refer to the person or the experience of eing bullied.