Increasing migration and the resultant multiculturalism in Greek society has highlighted the importance of studying the role of school ethnic composition in bullying and peer victimisation, not least because ethnic minority students involved in bullying behaviours seem to experience high levels of internalising and externalising problems. It is imperative that schools work towards ensuring a safe environment for all students. This can be achieved through the implementation of policies that facilitate positive social interactions and address issues of bias-based bullying, thus contributing to social justice. This article examines school bullying and related policies in Greece in the context of increasing diversity and reviews their evolution in the past decade.

This study aimed to explore the constructs related to teachers’ competence in immediately intervening in school bullying (CIISB) in order to develop a valid intervention process. In this study, 16 secondary school teachers in Taiwan with experience of dealing with school bullying were interviewed. In total, 26 interview transcripts were analysed. The results highlight two key constructs that are central to CIISB. The first is structuring prompt management of school bullying. This involves three phases: identifying the incident, stabilising the incident, and clarifying incidents as well as implementing incidental and intentional learning. The second construct is setting the appropriate atmosphere. This refers to teachers’ capacity to build a positive relationship with students by maintaining a calm, serious and fair attitude, and creating a positive atmosphere to implement an immediate intervention. The results suggest that teachers should master the above constructs of CIISB, thereby providing a suitable immediate intervention when school bullying occurs.

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of school bullying on school mindfulness and school academic performance through a structural equation model. The study was framed around the correlational design method; school bullying was taken as the independent variable and school mindfulness and school academic performance were used as the dependent variables. The study participants consisted of 156 high school teachers working in three of the schools selected from various school districts by means of the maximum variation sampling method. The data were collected via the School Bullying Scale (Tintorer, 2004), the School Mindfulness Scale (Hoy, Gage, & Tarter, 2006), and the average scores on the Higher Education Transition exam for each school. Path analysis was conducted to enable associating measurement errors in both latent and observed variables. Our study findings show that school bullying negatively affects school mindfulness and academic performance and that school mindfulness positively affects academic performance. In addition, the findings reveal that verbal bullying, consisting of behaviours such as harassing phone calls, taking someone’s money or belongings by force, intimidating actions with violent threats, name calling, racist expressions and teasing, swearing, lying to others or insulting them, is more frequently observed than other bullying types.

School professionals, particularly school counsellors and school psychologists, require detailed knowledge of many important factors that contribute to the personal, academic, and vocational development of the students in their charge (e.g., psychosocial development, curricula developments, local community developments and initiatives, national and international policy developments). The amount of detail and knowledge required by school counsellors/psychologists is bewildering, even before consideration of the individual differences in those who require their help. A framework can provide school professionals with a parsimonious approach to organising, synthesising and understanding all the information that needs to be considered in relation to a child within a particular environment. The current article reviews and comments upon the usefulness of two such theoretical frameworks — Bronfenbrenner's ecological model (1979, 1989) and Spiel, Reimann, Wagner, and Schober's (2008) Bildung-Psychology approach — to an exploration and understanding of a common issue; namely, bully/victim problems among school pupils. It is argued that such ecological/systemic approaches could usefully inform the design and evaluation of future efforts to address school bullying and violence. By extension, we propose that the simplicity of such models is of great value to the school professional who seeks a framework that can guide them in their work.

The transition period from primary to secondary school is a critical time in adolescent development. The high prevalence of adolescent mental health problems makes understanding the causal pathways between peer victimisation and internalising symptoms an important priority during this time. This article utilises data collected from self-completion questionnaires four times over 3 years from 3,459 students’ aged 11–14 to examine directional relationships among adolescents as they transition from primary to secondary school, and investigates gender differences in these associations. The findings suggest depression in males is both a precedent and antecedent for victimisation over the transition period, whereas for females depression is an antecedent only. Anxiety is a both a precedent and antecedent for victimisation for males and females. To maintain emotional wellbeing and prevent peer victimisation, interventions prior to and during this transition period are critical, especially among adolescents experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety.

What strategies do students use to cope with bullying and how effective are they? Answers to such questions will not only help students understand how they can cope, but also inform school-wide policies and practices to reduce the incidence of bullying. To do this, schools need evidence on what strategies to focus on to most effectively target their intervention and prevention programs. Students across Years 8, 9 and 10 in three South Australian high schools (n = 1223) completed a Coping with Bullying questionnaire, indicating strategies they used, and 82 informed professionals (IPs) rated each strategy's effectiveness, along with its applicability to different bullying types. IPs generally agreed on which strategies were effective and ineffective and that the same strategies were appropriate for all types of bullying. Seriously bullied students reported under-using some effective strategies. No significant difference between males and females in strategy use was found. Awareness of effective and ineffective coping strategies provides schools with a workable framework for targeting prevention and/or intervention programs that align with extant knowledge on coping with bullying. Disseminating such research evidence is important as this study shows that seriously bullied students are evidently under-using many strategies that IPs in this study regarded as effective.

Cyber bullying or bullying via information and communications technology tools such as the internet and mobile phones is a problem of growing concern with school-aged students. Cyber bullying actions may not take place on school premises, but detrimental effects are experienced by victims of cyber bullying in schools. Tools used by cyber bullies are presented and the impact on victims is discussed. Intervention strategies for school counsellors, guidance officers, and school personnel to adopt with students and parents are presented.