Journal of Adolescence 35 (2012) 981990

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Journal of Adolescence
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jado

What actually makes bullying stop? Reports from former victims

Ann Frisn, Tove Hasselblad, Kristina Holmqvist*
Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Box 500, 405 30 Gteborg, Sweden

a b s t r a c t
Keywords:
Bullying
Victimization
Interventions
Students perspective
Children
Adolescents

School bullying is a serious, worldwide problem which is not easily counteracted. The
present study focuses on the perspective of former victims, asking them what it was that
made the bullying stop in their case. Participants were 273 18-year-old former victims in
Sweden, a country in which schools are doing extensive work against bullying and the
bullying prevalence is relatively low. Results showed that although support from school
personnel was the most common reason that the former victims gave to why the bullying
had ended, it was only mentioned by a fourth of them. In fact, it was almost equally as
common that the bullying had ended in that the victims transitioned to a new school level
or changed their way of coping with the bullying. Very few of the adolescents reported
that the bullying had stopped due to support from peers.
2012 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier
Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bullying is a form of repeated physical, verbal, or relational/indirect aggression against a less powerful individual (Smith,
2003). It has severe and long-term consequences for its victims, including psychological and physical ill-being, poor selfesteem, school absence, anxiety, and depression (Frisn & Bjarnelind, 2010; Hawker & Boulton, 2000; Lunde, Frisn, &
Hwang, 2007; Rigby, 2003; Smith, Ananiadou, & Cowie, 2003; Stassen Berger, 2007). Although considerable effort has
gone into counteracting and preventing bullying, the results are somewhat ambiguous (Craig, Pepler, Murphy, & McCuaigEdge, 2010; Plog, Epstein, Jens, & Porter, 2010). In the present study, we asked Swedish 18-year-olds who have been
victims of bullying during school about what they, themselves, think made the bullying stop. What was it that made
a difference in their case?
Students own perspective of bullying
Simply by going to school, students acquire a unique, and for bullying research very valuable, close-up perspective of the
bullying problem. Several researchers have examined students own perspective when it comes to dening bullying and
reasons for why bullying occurs (e.g. Bosacki, Marini, & Dane, 2006; Boulton, Bucci, & Hawker, 1999; Boulton, Trueman, &
Flemington, 2002; Erling & Hwang, 2004; Frisn, Holmqvist, & Oscarsson, 2008; Frisn, Jonsson, & Persson, 2007; Gini,
2008; Hamarus & Kaikkonen, 2008; Oliver, Hoover, & Hazler, 1994; Smith & Levan, 1995; Tersahjo & Salmivalli, 2003;
Thornberg, 2010; Thornberg & Knutsen, 2011; Varjas et al., 2008). However, fewer have asked the students about what they,
themselves, think should be done to actually stop the bullying problem. Mainly, such studies have focused on how students
think that victims should cope in bullying situations (Kanetsuna, Smith, & Morita, 2006; Kristensen & Smith, 2003; Smith
et al., 2008; Smith, Talamelli, Cowie, Naylor, & Chauhan, 2004; Tenenbaum, Varjas, Meyers, & Parris, 2011). Unfortunately,
we were only able to locate two previous studies that have examined students perception of what should be done, overall, to
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 46 31 786 4263; fax: 46 31 786 4628.
E-mail addresses: ann.frisen@psy.gu.se (A. Frisn), kristina.holmqvist@psy.gu.se (K. Holmqvist).
0140-1971/$ see front matter 2012 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2012.02.001

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stop the bullying problem (that is, not only what victims should do). In one of those two studies, Crothers, Kolbert, and Barker
(2006) asked middle school students to rate fteen different anti-bullying strategies according to how helpful they
considered them to be. Generally, results revealed that the students wished that teachers more efciently would notice and
interfere in bullying situations, provide assistance to bullied students in terms of how to cope with their situation, and involve
the parents of both perpetrators and victims (Crothers et al., 2006). Frisn and Holmqvist (2010) found similar results when
they asked students at age 13 and 16 an open-ended question about what they considered important in order to stop the
bullying of a student. At both 13 and 16, the students most frequent answer was that school personnel should take action by
having serious talks with the students involved and that victims should learn to cope with the bullying e.g. by standing up for
themselves or by ignoring the bully (Frisn & Holmqvist, 2010).
The present study, similarly to Crothers et al. (2006) and Frisn and Holmqvist (2010), intend to examine students own
perspective of bullying interventions. However, in contrast to the two studies previously mentioned, the present study does
not examine the perception of adolescents in general; it focuses on the perception of the victims. Importantly, also, it does not
investigate victims general view of which interventions that may be helpful in bullying situations; it asks the victims of what
it was that helped in their case. By doing so, we hope to gain a picture as realistic as possible of the bullying interventions that
the victims considered to have had effect. We chose to examine adolescents at the age of 18 since previous research has
shown that this is an age when the bullying most probably has nished (e.g. Nansel et al., 2001; Scheithauer, Hayer,
Petermann, & Jugert, 2006).
Bullying in Sweden
Bullying prevalence varies widely between countries (Elgar, Craig, Boyce, Morgon, & Vella-Zarb, 2009) and so does the
extent to which different countries work to counteract the bullying problem (Jimerson & Huai, 2010). In Sweden, schools are
doing extensive work against bullying and personnel active in the Swedish school system are by law (The Swedish Education
Act, legislated in 1985) obliged to actively counteract all types of insulting treatment such as bullying or racist behavior (The
National Swedish Agency for Education, 2009). Large-scale international comparisons suggest that Sweden has the lowest
prevalence of bullying compared to other European countries and North America (according to these, approximately 46% of
Swedish 1115 year-olds are bullied) (Due et al., 2005; Elgar et al., 2009). However, prevalence as high as 12% has been found
among 13-year-old Swedish boys (Frisn & Bjarnelind, 2010). Interestingly, despite the possibly low rates of bullying in
Sweden, the association between being victimized and reporting negative physical and psychological symptoms appears to
be stronger in Sweden than in many other countries (Due et al., 2005). Such results indicate that bullying is a serious problem
in Swedish schools that needs to be given further attention.
There are several anti-bullying programs being implemented in schools in Sweden and internationally, all with somewhat
different theoretical frameworks on how to tackle bullying situations (The National Swedish Agency for Education, 2009). It is
common that these programs focus on educating school personnel (e.g. the Olweus bullying prevention program; Olweus,
1993) since school personnels attitudes, routines, and behaviors have shown to be decisive factors in the degree to which
a school will manifest bullying problems (Olweus, 1999). Previous research has, for instance, found a clear negative correlation between teacher density during recess and amount of bullying problems in schools (Olweus, 1999). Another approach
in anti-bullying preventions is to focus on the enhancement of victims coping strategies (e.g. FearNot; referred to in Watson
et al., 2010). Previous research has shown that the typical victims are more anxious and insecure than students in general and
do not cope effectively in bullying situations. When attacked by bullies, they commonly react by crying (at least in the lower
grades) and withdrawal, resulting in repeated episodes of bullying (Olweus, 1999). It has therefore been hypothesized that
improving victims coping strategies (e.g. by teaching victims to be assertive in bullying situations) might help victims to
handle the bullying problem themselves (Rigby, 2001). According to Rigby (2001), it is always better if victims are able to
handle the bullying problem on their own, and that the increase in self-esteem resulting from successfully doing so is
enormous (Rigby, 2001). Finally, the idea of bullying as a group phenomenon, and thus not only dependent on school
personnel or the students directly involved in the bullying (the victim and the bully), has also increasingly started to guide
anti-bullying interventions. As a result, some anti-bullying programs (e.g. the KiVa program; Salmivalli, Krn, & Poskiparta,
2010) focus on the intervention of peers. As suggested by Salmivalli (1999), peers constantly witness bullying situations and
through their behavior in these situations (defending the victim, assisting the bully, or simply being a bystander providing an
audience for the bully), they take a position toward what is going on. Peers behavior in such situations has been suggested to
have great effects on the outcome of the bullying episodes, and it is therefore highly relevant to include peers in anti-bullying
interventions (Salmivall, 1999). Peers behavior may in fact be easier to change than the behavior of the bullies, and through
these changes, the behavior of the bullies might also be affected. The bully probably does not continue to bully without his/
her supporters and audience, for instance (Salmivalli, 1999).
Although the anti-bullying programs described are based on different theoretical frameworks considering the aspects that
are important in counteracting bullying, the positive effects of these programs are often modest and ambiguous (Craig et al.,
2010). This makes it difcult to establish what elements that should be incorporated in anti-bullying programs to ensure
maximum success (Craig et al., 2010; Rigby, 2006). Additionally, since Swedish schools often pick strategies from several
different programs, it is impossible to identify the strategies that have been effective (The National Swedish Agency for
Education, 2009). Thus, by giving voice to a few of the former bullying victims in Sweden, we hope to point out some of
the strategies that they considered most helpful.

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In order to obtain a more detailed picture of the strategies that the former victims considered most helpful, we will also
investigate whether there are any differences in the strategies that they report depending on sex, frequency with which they
were bullied, and at what age the bullying stopped. Previous research has shown that the nature of bullying tends to differ by
age and sex, with boys and younger students being more likely to engage in physical bullying and girls and older students
being more likely to engage in relational bullying (Rivers & Smith, 1994). Thus, since one can assume that different types of
bullying, as well as different types of intensity in the bullying, might need different types of interventions, we will investigate
these aspects further in our analysis.
Purpose
The overarching purpose of this study was to ask Swedish 18-year-olds who have been victims of bullying during school
about what they, themselves, think made the bullying stop in their own case. Our aim was also to investigate whether there
are any differences regarding what the former victims think made the bullying stop depending on sex, frequency with which
they were bullied, and at what age the bullying stopped.
Method
Procedure
The present study is part of a large longitudinal study designed to investigate bullying among Swedish children and
adolescents (the Mobbing and School study). The original sample of the prospective study consisted of 960 10-year-olds
(T1) from different socio-economic areas of the city of Gothenburg (second largest city in Sweden). Study follow-ups were
conducted at age 13 (T2), 16 (T3), and for the purpose of the present study, 18 (T4). Thus, at T4, 923 adolescents (96% of
the original sample, [4% had lled in incorrect information or moved abroad]) were sent a postal mail comprising an
invitation for them to participate, an Internet link to a web-based questionnaire, and a personal code to log in. Participants were assured that their responses would be treated in a condential matter. In order to facilitate a high response
rate, they were also offered a movie ticket as compensation once the research team had received their questionnaire.
Letters of reminder were sent three and ve weeks after the rst letter. The total response rate for participation was 77%
(n 715).
Participants
Of the 715 adolescents that participated in the fourth wave of the longitudinal study, 273 (38%, mean age 18.26, SD .51)
reported having been bullied at some point during their school years and comprise the participant sample for this study.
Almost the same amount of girls (39%, n 154) as boys (37%, n 119) of the 715 adolescents reported having been bullied.
However, there was large variation when it comes to the proportion of adolescents who reported having been bullied at
different grades. Whereas 20% of the adolescents reported having been bullied in fourth or fth grade in primary school (age
1011), only 24% of the adolescents reported having been bullied during upper secondary school (age 1618). At the time of
the present study, the great majority of the participants were students (93%, n 253) and were just about to nish third, and
last, grade of upper secondary school.
Measures
A web-based questionnaire was created using Lime survey (version 1.52).
Previous victim experience
Initially, participants were given a written denition of bullying (Olweus, 1999). Experiences of being a victim of bullying
were then measured using the Victimization Index (Rigby, 1999). This index is originally a single-item measure which asks
students to indicate how often they have been bullied at school during the current year (response options were: every day,
most days, one or two days a week, about once a week, less than once a week, and never). In the present study, however,
participants were asked to ll in how often they had been bullied during each of the twelve grades in primary and
secondary school (same response options). We categorized the participants into two groups; those who had been victims of
bullying (no matter the duration nor the frequency) (1) and those who had not (0). Self-report measures of victimization
have been found to correlate with peer reports of victimization by approximately .41 for girls and by .45 for boys (Rigby,
1997).
Perception of what made the bullying stop
In order to investigate what the adolescents who had been victims of bullying at school thought it was that put an end to
the bullying, they were asked an open-ended question as follows: If you have ever been the victim of bullying during school,
what was it that made the bullying stop (if it did stop)? The question was followed by a blank space of approximately onethird of a page, on which the participants were able to freely describe their thoughts on this aspect.

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Analysis
The answers to the open-ended question If you have ever been the victim of bullying during school, what was it that
made the bullying stop (if it did stop)? were analyzed following a thematic approach. Thematic analysis is used for
identifying, analyzing and reporting patterns, or themes, within data, and has been described as a exible and useful tool
which can potentially provide a rich, detailed, and yet complex, account of data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Thus, the thematic
analyzing process, as suggested by Braun and Clarke (2006), began by reading through the answers to the open-ended
question and giving interesting features initial codes. Codes that had similar content were combined into potential
themes. The answers to the open-ended question were then read through once again, this time with the potential themes in
mind. Finally, after having adjusted the potential themes to make sure that they worked in relation to the data (by renaming,
combining, or dividing them), ten themes were formed. Inter-coder reliability was calculated on a random sample of 10% of
the answers using Cohens Kappa. The agreement between the two different coders were excellent, K > .78 in every
category.
Chi-square tests were used to examine differences in what the adolescents thought made the bullying stop depending on
sex, at what age the bullying took place, and with what frequency.
Results
In total, 225 adolescents (82% of the former victims) answered the open-ended question concerning what they thought it
was that made the bullying stop. Twenty of these answers were excluded from the analysis since they could not be
considered as answering the question. Thus, overall, we analyzed the answers of 205 adolescents (75% of those who reported
having been bullied). Among these, 117 (57%) were girls and 88 (43%) were boys. Table 1 demonstrates the proportions of
victims, among those who answered the open-ended question, who reported having been bullied in the different grades at
school.
Presenting the themes
The answers to the open-ended question If you have ever been the victim of bullying during school, what was it that
made the bullying stop (if it did stop)? were coded into ten themes, see Table 2.
Distribution of answers in the categories
The distribution of the adolescents answers in the different categories is presented in Table 3. The categories that most
frequently occurred in the adolescents answers were support from school personnel, transition to new school level, and
the victim changed his or her way of coping when being bullied. Very few adolescents considered support from peers as
a reason to why the bullying ended.
Sex differences
Chi-square analyses on each of the categories revealed a signicant sex difference on one of them; the victim changed his
or her way of coping when being bullied. More specically, it was found that a larger proportion of boys in comparison to
girls experienced that the bullying had stopped as a consequence of them having changed their way of coping when being
bullied c2 (1, N 205) 4.01, p < .05. As concerns the other ten categories, no sex differences were found.
Table 1
Percentages of adolescents, among those who answered the open-ended question regarding what they thought made the bullying stop, who reported having
been bullied during each of the twelve grades in primary, secondary, and upper secondary school.
Grade (age)

Proportion of adolescents, among those who answered the question regarding

what made the bullying stop, who reported having been bullied at each school year (%)

1 (7 years)
2 (8 years)
3 (9 years)
4 (10 years)
5 (11 years)
6 (12 years)
7 (13 years)
8 (14 years)
9 (15 years)
1st year (16 years)
2nd year (17 years)
3rd year (18 years)

48
54
53
52
52
53
43
39
29
11
7
6

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Table 2
The ten themes formed from the adolescents answers to the question If you have ever been the victim of bullying during school, what was it that made the
bullying stop (if it did stop)?.
Theme

Description of theme

Illustrative quotation

Support from school personnel

The involvement of school personnel (e.g. teachers,

headmaster, school welfare ofcer, the schools
anti-bullying team, recreation leaders, or more
generally, the school) made the bullying stop.
The victim told his or her parents about the bullying
or the parents intervened on their own initiative.

He [the headmaster] organized a meeting in which I was

asked to point out the bullies in the school yearbook and
then the bullies were called to a meeting with the
headmaster.
I stayed home from school a lot and my parents made
me tell them about the bullying. They contacted the
school who dealt with it.
A friend of mine noticed how they [the bullies] treated
me /. / and then she went and told a teacher.
. then I found someone to be with when I started
third grade.

Support from parents

Support from peers

The victim made new friends

Transition to new school level

Change of school or class as

a deliberate attempt to
make the bullying stop
The victim changed his or
her way of coping when
being bullied
The victim changed his or
her way of being or
appearance

The bullies changed their

attitude
The bullying stopped
without any particular reason

Peers supported the victim emotionally or actively

intervened in order to stop the bullying.
The victim made new friends in class. A few of the
adolescents pointed out that nding new friends
was particularly efcient if these new friends were
students that had high social status in class.
The victim or the bullies were placed in a new group
of students in association with their advancement to
the next school level or, in some cases, general
re-organizations at school. Answers in which the
cause to the change of class or school was not
mentioned, such as We changed school, or answers
implying that the adolescent changed school because
his or her family had moved to a different city, were
also included in this category.
The victim changed school with the specic intention
to make the bullying stop.
The victim changed his or her way of coping in
bullying situations, by, for instance, telling the bully
to stop, ghting back, or ignoring the bullying.
The victim became more self-condent, extrovert,
or more mature. This category also includes
descriptions of how the bullying stopped when
some aspect of the victims appearance that had
been the subject of harassment, such as acne or
chubbiness, disappeared as he or she grew older.
The bullies matured and obtained a greater
understanding and empathy for the victims
situation, or they simply got tired of bullying.
The former victim cannot see any particular
reason for why the bullying stopped or states
that it simply faded out after a while.

The people involved [the bullies] graduated from ninth

grade and so it all stopped.
The class was divided and the popular gang split up.
I got the opportunity to meet other nice students and
the hierarchy that existed in class was eliminated once
the bullies lost control.

.After three and a half years I couldnt take it

anymore, so I changed school
I spoke up for myself, pressed the one who behaved
badly against a wall, and told him how I felt.
The bullying stopped when I simply started to ignore
what the bullies were saying.
I got more self-condent and then people stopped
bullying me.
I was bullied for being chubby as a child. As I grew
older my chubbiness disappeared and the bullying
stopped.
I think it stopped when we grew up and people got
more mature and started to realise that its another
persons feelings they are playing with.
I simply had to stand it until it stopped by itself.

Differences depending on at what age the bullying stopped

To explore whether the adolescents perception of what made the bullying stop differed depending on their age when the
bullying had stopped, the respondents were classied according to the latest school year during which they reported having
been bullied. The participants were divided into two groups depending on whether their last year of being bullied took place
in grade 16 (age 712, n 94) or in grade 79 and upper secondary school (age 1318, n 110). Chi-square analyses showed
Table 3
Percentages of adolescents who included the different themes in their answers to the question what made the bullying stop?.
Theme

In total (n 205) (%)

Boys (n 89) (%)

Girls (n 116) (%)

Support from school personnel

Transition to new school level
Change of coping strategies
Support from parents
Change of appearance or way of being
Change of school or class as a deliberate attempt to make the
bullying stop
New friends
The bullies changed their attitude
No particular reason
Support from peers
Other reasons

25
23
20
12
12
11

24
20
26
8
8
12

27
25
15
15
14
10

11
8
5
4
3

9
9
6
3
3

12
8
5
4
3

Note. A participants answer may have been coded into several different categories.

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A. Frisn et al. / Journal of Adolescence 35 (2012) 981990

a signicant difference between the groups on one of the categories: support from parents. More specically, a greater
proportion of those whose last year of being bullied occurred in grade 16 in comparison to those whose last year of being
bullied occurred in grade 79 and upper secondary school, experienced that the bullying had stopped due to support from
their parents c2 (2, N 204) 9.157, p < .05. As concerns the other ten categories, we found no differences in the adolescents
answers depending on at what age the bullying had stopped.
Differences depending on the frequency of the bullying
In order to examine whether the adolescents perception of what made the bullying stop differed depending on the
frequency with which they had been bullied, we divided the participants into two groups: those who had been bullied less
than once a week (less frequently; n 60) and those who had been bullied once a week or more during at least one school
year (frequently, n 144). Again, the two groups differed signicantly on one of the categories: support from parents, c2 (1,
N 204) 5,82, p < .05. To be more specic, a larger proportion of adolescents having been bullied frequently (15%) in
comparison to those having been bullied less frequently (3%), described the support from their parents as a reason to why the
bullying stopped. As concerns the other ten categories, we found no differences in the adolescents answers depending on the
frequency with which they had been bullied.
Discussion
The current study aimed to investigate 18-year-old Swedish former victims of bullying about what they, themselves, think
made the bullying stop. Two of the most frequent answers were that the bullying had stopped because of support from school
personnel or in that the victim changed his or her way of coping with the bullying. Surprisingly few of the former victims
reported that the bullying had stopped due to support from peers. Instead, they frequently described the transition to a new
school level as a critical factor in ending the bullying.
Distribution of answers in the themes
The signicance of school personnel, transitions, and coping
The most frequent answer to the question about what made the bullying stop was that the bullying ended with the
intervention of school personnel. The fact that school personnel intervene effectively in bullying situations is promising and
indicates that Swedish schools do take actions in line with the Swedish Education Act. It gives support to the theoretical
framework offered by Olweus (1999) suggesting that school personnel play a major role in counteracting bullying problems.
Nevertheless, although being the most frequent answer, it is worrying that only a minority (25%) of the adolescents described
support from school personnel as a reason to why the bullying ended. Considering the extensive work that is being done
against bullying in Swedish schools, and the implementation of anti-bullying programs focused on educating school
personnel, we expected that a larger proportion of adolescents would report positive experiences as regards the intervention
of school personnel. Instead, some of the adolescents described how they had turned to school personnel without having
received any help, or how school personnel had intervened unsuccessfully. Sadly, school personnel are not always equipped
with accurate, in-depth understanding and tools to deal with school bullying (Jimerson & Huai, 2010). Previous research has
shown that they, for instance, tend to recognize only overt physical and verbal bullying and not covert relational bullying
(Bauman & Del Rio, 2006). Furthermore, in a large-scale study conducted in England, it was found that when school personnel
actually do intervene in bullying situations, in about 45% of cases the bullying continues with the same frequency or gets
worse (Smith & Shu, 2000). Thus, in general, school personnel need not only to be better informed about the different natures
of bullying, but also be provided with tools to more efciently deal with specic bullying situations.
Another frequent answer to the question about what made the bullying stop was that the bullying ended in that the
adolescents transitioned to a new school level. The nding was surprising, and in certain ways discouraging, considering that
this particular theme is one of the few in this study that does not imply any deliberate anti-bullying strategy. Moreover, it
contrasts with previous research demonstrating that transitions between school levels may actually trigger bullying instead
of reducing it, mainly because some students may use bullying tactics to establish social dominance in the new group
(Pellegrini et al., 2010). In the current study, however, several of the adolescents described the transition to a new school level
as something positive; it separated them from the bullies as well as the bully-reinforcing bystanders and gave them the
opportunity to start again with new friends. Both ndings suggest that transitions between school levels are time periods that
are essential from a bullying perspective. Not only should school personnel be particularly attentive during these transitions,
close attention should also be paid to how new classes are put together (e.g. by placing victims together with friends and
separate from bullies). Furthermore, as suggested previously (Hodges, Boivin, Vitaro, & Bukowski, 1999; Salmivalli, 1999), one
can make conscious efforts also during the school year to disperse the peer groups that are bullying-favoring and help to
constitute new groups by putting students to work in combinations different from previous ones.
A third frequent answer to the question about what made the bullying stop was that the adolescents changed their way of
coping in bullying situations, e.g. by telling the bully to stop, ghting back, or by ignoring the bullying. This nding is in line
with the theoretical assumptions of several bullying researchers (e.g. Olweus, 1999; Watson et al., 2010), suggesting that
victims tend to cope poorly in bullying situations (e.g. they react by crying and withdrawal), and that this may aggravate the

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987

bullying. Therefore, by helping victims to enhance their coping strategies (e.g. by teaching them to be more assertive in
bullying situations), they might be able to handle the bullying problem themselves. Previous ndings have shown that to hit
back verbally (e.g. by telling the bully to stop) may be an effective way for victims to cope with the bullying (Rigby, 2002). Boys
who hit back physically might increase their social group status by standing up for themselves (Smith, Shu, & Madsen, 2001),
however, the bullying can aggravate if the victim is outnumbered or confronted by a physically stronger person (Rigby, 2002).
Similarly, to simply ignore the bullying, as some of the adolescents in the present study did, may be effective in some cases
and not in others (Cowie & Berdondini, 2002; Smith et al., 2001). Recent ndings suggests that the effectiveness of coping
strategies may be related to the number of ways the victim is bullied, with victims exposed to more than one form of bullying
coping less successfully (Skrzypiec, Slee, Murray-Harvey, & Pereira, 2011). Victims level of appraised control might also
inuence their way of coping with the situation, in both positive and negative ways (Terranova, Harris, Kavetski, & Oates,
2011). The present study, however, indicates that at least some victims experience that their way of coping, e.g. by telling
the bully to stop, ghting back, or by ignoring the bullying, did put an end to the bullying.
The insignicance of peers support
We were surprised to nd that so few of the adolescents reported that the bullying had stopped because of the support
from peers. In general, researchers on bullying interventions (e.g. Salmivalli, 1999) place great hope in peers ability to
counteract bullying situations based on the theoretical assumption that peers behavior is suggested to have great effects on
the outcome of the bullying episodes. Many schools in Sweden, and worldwide, have implemented peer support programs in
which trained students are responsible for looking out for and supporting students who are bullied and reporting bullying
incidents to school personnel (Cowie, Hutson, Oztug, & Myers, 2008; The National Swedish Agency for Education, 2009). Still,
the present study, along with previous ndings (Crothers et al., 2006), suggest that the victims themselves, and adolescents in
general, do not view peer support as an effective anti-bullying strategy. Is it perhaps so, that peers support to victims is not
enough to make the bullying stop? Do peers intervene at all in bullying situations, and if they do not, why is that? According
to some researchers, it is complex to rely on peers to intervene in bullying situations. Juvonen and Galvan (2008), for instance,
suggest that peers often do not intervene because, rstly, they try to increase their own social standing by taking side with the
person in power (the bully), and secondly, they might think that appearing as if they accept the bullys behavior may protect
them from becoming the next victim. By juxtaposing the ndings of the present study with previous ones (Crothers et al.,
2006), one may thus question whether the role played by peers in counteracting bullying is really as important as has
previously been suggested. Perhaps the peer intervention often emphasized in anti-bullying research is not as helpful as one
would like it to be?
Differences depending on sex, frequency of the bullying, and at what age the bullying had stopped
In general, the adolescents answers to the question about what made the bullying stop were very similar regardless of sex,
frequency of the bullying, and at what age the bullying had stopped. This nding suggests that victims with very different
experiences may still be helped in similar ways. What it is that actually helps may also differ to such an extent from one
individual to another, and from one school to another, that it is impossible to explain differences with the use of rather simple
factors such as sex and frequency or time of the bullying. However, the few differences that we did nd are discussed below.
As concerns sex differences, we found that a larger proportion of boys in comparison to girls reported that the bullying
ended in that they changed their way of coping. Although there are no indications in previous research as to whether boys use
coping strategies more frequently than girls, there is evidence that boys and girls tend to use different coping strategies.
Whereas boys tend to cope by ghting back, girls tend to cope by asking friends or adults for help (Smith et al., 2001). Boys
most common coping strategy, then, may be a more direct way to end the bullying, whereas girls most common coping
strategy relies on the intervention of others. As a consequence, girls may not perceive their coping strategy (telling someone)
as the reason to why the bullying ended in the same way as boys may do with their coping strategy (ghting back).
Not totally surprising, we found that the adolescents whose last year of being bullied occurred before the age of 13 were
more likely than those whose last year of being bullied occurred at age 13 or later to report that the bullying had stopped due
to support from parents. Family relationships do change during puberty, involving more conicts and less closeness between
adolescents and their parents (Berk, 2004). For younger children and adolescents, who are still very dependent on their
parents, it may be natural to ask their parents for help in case they are bullied. For older and more independent adolescents,
on the other hand, it may be embarrassing to turn to ones parents for help.
To mention support from parents as a reason to why the bullying ended was also more common among those who had
been bullied frequently (once a week or more) in comparison to those who had been bullied less frequently (less than once
a week). Certainly, one can imagine that victims who are bullied frequently may be particularly affected by their situation, and
therefore in need of additional emotional support. To turn to ones parents may be a way to receive this support and,
hopefully, to get help to end the bullying.
Limitations
There are limitations to the present study. One limitation concerns how we classied the adolescents as victims or nonvictims: those who at any point reported having been bullied, no matter the frequency or the duration, were dened as

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victims. However, an important feature in the denition of bullying (e.g. Olweus, 1999) is that it is an act that is repeated over
time. As a result, we might have classied some adolescents as victims although they, according to the denition of bullying,
are not. Nevertheless, our aim in the present study was to capture the adolescents own perspective a perspective that also
includes their own perception of whether or not they have been bullied. Furthermore, as shown in Solberg, Olweus, and
Endresen (2007)s overview of studies examining bullying prevalence, it is common that researchers use a rather low
frequency of bullying experience (such as sometimes or once or twice during the semester) as the lower cut-off point for
considering participants as victims.
It should also be highlighted that the adolescents in the present study were asked about their bullying experience
retrospectively, implying that the data concerning bullying prevalence in different grades should be interpreted cautiously.
However, once again, the purpose of the present study was to focus on the adolescents own perspective, something that we
attempted to do in every sense, also in their reports of being bullied.
Another limitation to this study is the fact that it relies solely on self-reports from the students themselves. Researchers have
recently highlighted the importance of including objective assessments when performing research in school contexts (Graesser,
2009; Wienke Totura, Green, Karver, & Gesten, 2009). Thus, in the case of the present study, it could have been valuable to
investigate the perception e.g. of teachers and non-victimized students regarding what they think made the bullying stop.
A nal limitation involves the lack of more in-depth information on the adolescents bullying experience. Data on the type
of bullying they were exposed to (e.g. physical, verbal, or relational) would be valuable, and so would a more comprehensive
story of everything that was done to stop the bullying (including the strategies that failed). Such detailed information could
preferably be obtained by using an interview approach or a more in-depth questionnaire study.
Conclusions
It is of utmost importance to counteract the problem of bullying in schools worldwide. The present study focused on the
perspective of former victims, asking them what it was that made the bullying stop in their case. Results showed that
although school personnel do play an important role in counteracting bullying, it appears that their difculty to effectively
deal with bullying exists in Sweden as it does in other countries. It further stresses the importance of equipping school staff
with tools in order to better notice and efciently intervene in bullying situations. The results also highlight the positive effect
that transitions between school levels may have for bullying victims who, as a result of these transitions, might be separated
from the bullies and are given the chance to start over in a new class. Accordingly, we stress that close attention should be paid
to how new classes are put together in periods of transition. A third important factor that the adolescents in the present study
reported had made the bullying stop was their use of coping strategies (e.g. telling the bully to stop, ghting back, or ignoring
the bullying). Thus, to sum up, the adolescents answers to the question What actually makes bullying stop? included
a diverse range of approaches to counteract the bullying problem: by the help of others (support from school personnel), by
standard rearrangements at school (transitions between school levels) and, nally, by dealing with it on ones own (by the use
of coping strategies). Very few of the adolescents reported that the bullying had ended because of support from peers,
a nding that questions the emphasis on peers intervention in some anti-bullying programs. Also, we found few differences
in the adolescents answers depending on sex, frequency of the bullying, and at what age the bullying had stopped. However,
adolescents who had been bullied frequently and only before the age of 13 were more likely to report that the bullying had
ended because of support from parents.
The perception of former victims is a valuable perspective for research of bullying intervention. It is our hope that future
research continues to investigate this perspective in-depth in order to obtain a fuller picture of what actually makes
a difference in cases of bullying, in Sweden and in other countries.
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