This article examined 122 rural high school student’s experiences with bullying and harassment, strategies for dealing with victimization, and interpretation of their peer’s actions. Data was gathered through individual interviews and focus groups from 3 schools.  Findings suggested that the majority of students believed that bullying and harassment are normal and that acceptance of these behaviors is necessary. Acceptance of bullying and harassment was valued by students and allowed them to maintain a place within a social group.  Strategies that students utilized were to do nothing, use various cognitive mechanisms, tell an adult, or react.  Two kinds of teasing were identified: playful and mean-spirited.  Students also reported that an inability to accept peer abuse meant that the individual was of “poor mental health” and reporting of bullying or harassment to an adult was used in rare circumstances. Students reported that adults were not aware of the amount of sexual harassment in school or they did not recognize it as sexual harassment. Implications of these findings included that adolescents should be involved in the process of defining bullying and harassment and in the development of solutions.

Students in a suburban Quebec school were asked if other students had verbally harassed them, made non-coercive sexual contact (e.g., unwanted kissing) or attempted to obtain sexual favors using blackmail or force in the previous 3 months. They were also asked if they had perpetrated those acts on another student. The study included 37 students who reported being victimized and 21 who reported perpetrating the behavior. These groups were then compared with a matched control sample of students. Female students who were victims (n=27) were more likely to endorse sexist attitudes than other girls; boys who were perpetrators were more likely to endorse sexist attitudes than other boys. All victims were more likely to use drugs and alcohol than controls or perpetrators. Both victims and perpetrators were involved with more deviant behaviors than controls.

A national telephone survey of 1,500 youth between ages 10-17 was conducted in 2005. The survey examined online sexual solicitation and harassment.  Youth were divided into 3 categories; those who kept an online journal (bloggers), those who interacted with people known in person (interactors), and those who interacted with people they met online (interactors).   The findings suggested that it is the actual interaction youth conduct with people they meet online that increases the likelihood of solicitation that may lead to sexual victimization.  Youth who were interactors were 2 times more likely to report sexual solicitation regardless if they were bloggers.  Bloggers who were not interactors were not found to have an increased risk of solicitation.  All youth who were bloggers and/or interactors were found to have an increased risk for harassment.

This study examined sex differences in experiences of bullying, victimization, and bystander responses among 9,397 students, grades 4 to 11, from a suburban school district in Canada. Findings indicated that social bullying and victimization were reported more often than physical and cyber bullying. Boys reported participating in more physical, verbal, and cyber bullying and experienced more physical and verbal victimization than girls. Girls reported participating in more social bullying and experienced more social victimization. Younger students reported taking positive action when a witness to bullying than older students. Students in grades 4 and 5 reported intervening by telling the bully to stop, helping the victim, or talking to an adult. Older students were more likely to do nothing or utilize indirect and retaliatory strategies to get back at the bully. Bullying prevention programs should begin in elementary school and teach specific strategies that can be used to intervene in a bullying situation.

This article examined sexual harassment experiences among 150 Mexican immigrant female farm workers in California. The study focused on factors that increased women’s risk of sexual harassment, how female farm worker’s experiences may differ from other groups of women, and how power and agency limit response options are specifically discussed. Results indicated that 97% of the women reported sexual harassment from coworkers and superiors and of those, 53% reported physical and verbal advances, gross sexual imposition, and rape. Twenty-four percent of women who reported harassment also reported sexual coercion or on-the-job blackmail. Women reported a variety of responses that ranged from confronting to ignoring the perpetrator and several physical and psychological health effects. Female farm workers should be made aware of sexual harassment policies and their right to work in safe environments. Perpetrators, contractors, and agricultural companies must be held accountable for their actions.