Article

School Psychology International

2016, Vol. 37(1) 317
Bullying involvement ! The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/0143034315605421

Germany and in Korea spi.sagepub.com

Hwa-ok Bae
Gyeongsang National University, Republic of Korea

Abstract
This study compared bullying involvement of Korean or Korean-German children living
in Germany with children in Korea, and examined childrens perceptions of school
environment associated with bullying involvement of the children. This study included
105 Korean or Korean-German children living in the Bayern State of Germany as the
study sample and 95 Korean children in Gyeongnam Province of Korea as the control
group. Korean children in Germany were significantly less likely to be exposed to and
less likely to be engaged in bullying behaviors than those in Korea, except relational
bullying. Overall 21.0% of Korean or Korean-German children were being bullied and
18.1% of children were bullying peers in Germany, whereas 33.7% of children were
exposed to being bullied and 35.8% of children were involved in bullying peers in Korea.
Childrens perceptions of school environment as being more favorable were significantly
associated with decreased bullying involvement of children. Policy implications were
suggested based on the findings.

Keywords
bullying involvement, cross-national, Germany, Korean children, school environment

Bullying is characterized by at least three criteria: (a) a social interaction between a

child or a group of children (bullies) who intentionally cause negative acts on other
child (victim); (b) an imbalance of power so that the bully is stronger than the victim
or is perceived to be stronger; and (c) this aggressive and unbalanced relationship
occurring repeatedly and over time (Smorti, Menesini, & Smith, 2003). Studies
have detailed its negative impact on both victims and bullies such as psychosocial
and behavioral problems including insomnia, anxiety, depression, behavioral
deviance, aggression, alcohol and drug use, and even suicidal ideation

Corresponding author:
Hwa-ok Bae, Department of Social Welfare College of Social Sciences Gyeongsang National University
Jinjudaero 501, Jinju, Gyeongnam, 660-701 Republic of Korea.
Email: hobae@gnu.ac.kr

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4 School Psychology International 37(1)

(Arseneault et al., 2006; Felix, Furlong, & Austin, 2009; Fleming & Jacobsen, 2009;
Hampel, Manhal, & Hayer, 2009). Studies have also documented that bullying
negatively aects school adjustment of children such as low academic achievement
and poor school attendance (Ammermueller, 2012; Arseneault et al., 2006; Hutzell
& Payne, 2012).
Bullying is not a new phenomenon but a world-wide problem across culture and
countries which needs study as well as policy attention (Akiba, LeTendre, Baker, &
Goesling, 2002; Ammenmueller, 2012; Elgar, Craig, Boyce, Morgan, & Vella-Zarb,
2009; Fleming & Jacobsen, 2009; Harel-Fisch et al., 2011). However, prevalence
rates of bullying appear to be dierent among countries. For example, a compre-
hensive study using the data from 37 countries in the 2006 Health Behavior in
School-Aged Children (HBSC) report that Sweden was the lowest with 1.80% and
Romania was the highest with 21.79% of school violence (bullied others two or
more times) (Elgar et al., 2009). Various factors might be associated with the rates
of bullying across countries. National systems of education that produce greater
achievement tended to record more school violence (Akiba et al., 2002).
Income inequality was signicantly associated with rates of bullying among the
37 countries, and multi-level analyses indicated that each SD increase in income
inequality corresponded with more frequent bullying (Elgar et al., 2009). Bullying
rates also depend on the interventions and preventions that each country uses
in order to cope with violence and bullying in schools (Moore, Jones, &
Broadbent, 2008).
Bullying involvement varies among children even in the same country. Studies
identied several factors associated with bullying of children. Individual factors
contributing to bullying are sex, age, and personal characteristics such as physical
appearance and individual tendency, and family factors include marital conict,
domestic violence, child abuse, and low income or unemployment (Ammenmueller,
2012; Baldry, 2003; Dussich & Maekoya, 2007; Fleming & Jacobsen, 2009;
Lee, 2010, 2011). Also, race/ethnicity is identied as an individual factor for bully-
ing involvement of children in schools (Larochette, Murphy, & Craig, 2010).

Bullying involvement of racial and ethnic minority children

There is an increase in the number of racial and ethnic minority children along with
increasing international marriages and immigrants across the world. Although
bullying is recognized as a serious problem in any country, not so much is
known about bullying involvement of racial and ethnic minority children in a
multicultural context.
Race and ethnicity can be a signicant risk factor for bullying involvement of
children and adolescents in schools. The theory of in-group bias explains racial
bullying and this theory states that individuals of the in-group can perceive the out-
group as threatening and dissimilar on the basis of race (Gini, 2006; Larochette

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Bae 5

et al., 2010). Racial attitudes, especially racial prejudice, have been found to be
present in very young children: White children as young as 4-years-old consistently
show racial preferences (Quintana, 1998). Further, racial majority children may
also develop in-group biases based on race as a function of their parents racial
attitudes (White & Gleitzman, 2006). Racial prejudices of children and adolescents
can develop into aggression, violence, and bullying towards other racial/ethnic
peers in schools (Larochette et al., 2010).
A growing number of studies explored race/ethnicity as a risk factor for bullying
involvement of children in schools. However, race/ethnicity in association with
bullying shows mixed ndings. Black adolescents reported a signicantly lower
prevalence of victimization than White and Hispanic adolescents (Spriggs,
Iannotti, Nansel, & Haynie, 2007). Asian or Pacic Islander students were the
least likely to be pushed, hit, or kicked because of their race, whereas Native
American students were the most likely to be afraid of being beaten up at school
(Felix et al., 2009). Latino and Asian American students are less likely to be
victimized in comparison to their White American counter parts, and students of
Asian descent are at the least risk of being victimized (Peguero, 2009). Meanwhile,
African-Canadian students were found to engage in racial bullying as well as report
being racially victimized (Larochette et al., 2010). Immigrant adolescents were
found to be at higher risk of bullying others compared with the native
Norwegians and aliation-related proactive aggressiveness and bullying others
were found among immigrant boys (Fandrem, Strohmeier, & Roland, 2009). As
growing up in a multicultural society and dealing with diversity in a positive way is
considered to be a new developmental task for children and adolescents (Fandrem
et al., 2009), it is important to study bullying experience of racial and ethnic
minority children in a society.

Bullying and school violence in Germany

According to the Nuremberg Pupils Survey 1994 on 1,458 pupils from the seventh
to ninth grades of lower secondary schools (Hauptschule), intermediate secondary
schools (Realschule), and higher secondary schools (Gymnasium), percentages of
pupils victimized during the previous half of the school year ranged from 19.2% of
boys and 5.5% of girls for being beaten up to 75.2% of boys and 81.4% of girls for
being verbally abused (Funk, 2001). Overall 12.1% of the students reported bully-
ing others, 11.1% being bullied, and 2.3% identied as bully/victims among 2,086
fth to tenth grader students from schools in two German Federal states
(Scheithauer, Hayer, Petermann, & Jugert, 2006), whereas overall 10% of children
were classied as bullies, 17.4% as victims, and 16.5% as bully/victims among 550
primary schools in Bremen and Lower Saxony (Marees & Petermann, 2010).
Compared to 24% of pupils becoming victims every week among 2,377 children
aged 6 - to 8-years-old in Hertfordshire and North London of England, victimiza-
tion rate was only 8% among 1,538 children aged 8-years-old in Munich and
Augsburg of Germany. In contrast, fewer boys in England engaged every week

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6 School Psychology International 37(1)

in bullying with 2.5% to 4.5% than German boys with 7.5% (Wolke, Woods,
Stanford, & Schulz, 2001).
Almost all studies in Germany indicate that more boys report bullying peers
than girls (Funk, 2001; Fuchs, 2008; Marees & Petermann, 2010; Scheithauer,
et al., 2006; Wolke et al., 2001), but more boys than girls are classied as bully/
victims, reporting more often being bullied physically than girls (Fuchs, 2008;
Scheithauer et al., 2006). With respect to age, there is an almost steady decline
of reporting verbal victimization and relational victimization while attending upper
grades (Funk, 2001; Scheithauer et al., 2006), but other result suggests that juvenile
students age 14 through 17 are considerably more violent than younger children
and adult students (Fuchs, 2008). Apart from age and gender, low parental educa-
tional levels and parents unemployed were a signicant predictor for a child bully-
ing status (Fuchs, 2008; Marees & Petermann, 2010).
There are mixed ndings in German studies on bullying involvement of children
regarding race/ethnicity. Ethnicity showed weak associations with bullying (Wolke
et al., 2001), but pupils with migration background denitely showed less involve-
ment of school violence (Funk, 2001). Migration background was found not to be a
useful risk marker for more frequent bullying or victimization experiences (Marees
& Petermann, 2010), whereas it signicantly determined being bullied, hurt, or
stolen from by fellow students in schools (Ammenmueller, 2012). Therefore, it is
necessary to examine bullying involvement of racial and ethnic minority children in
a German context.

School environment and bullying involvement

School is the context where bullying takes place, but bullying is a phenomenon
which is aected by various system factors such as individual, family, and school
from an ecological perspective. In addition to individual and family factors, school
factors exert a signicant inuence on bullying involvement of children (Hilton,
Anngela-Cole, & Wakita, 2010; Lee, 2010, 2011).
Most children are less likely to be victimized by bullies when they have a strong
connection with peers. Friendship quality and peer acceptance signicantly reduced
physical and verbal/relational bullying, whereas friendship conict increased phy-
sical and verbal/relational bullying among French students (Richard, Schneider, &
Mallet, 2011). But there is a little dierence of victimization with peers between
Asian countries and in Western countries. In Asian countries including Korea,
Japan, and Taiwan, friends are more likely to be bullies than protectors.
Bullying occurs among peers in the same age group and victims cling to the peer
groups despite being bullied to avoid isolation (Hilton et al., 2010; Lee, 2010; Wei
& Jonson-Reid, 2011).
Positive student-teacher relationships emerged as the strong predictor of redu-
cing bullying among students in Australia as well as in France (Murray-Harvey &
Slee, 2010; Richard et al., 2011). Positive student-teacher relationships also make a
contribution to willingness to seek help at the risk of school violence and bullying.

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Bae 7

Students who perceived their teachers and other school sta to be supportive were
more likely to endorse positive attitudes toward seeking help for bullying and
threats of violence (Eliot, Cornell, Gregory, & Fan, 2010).
Besides peer and teacher relationships, perception of school safety was strongly
associated with bullying among students. In an ethnically diverse school, school
safety is related to bullying for ethnic minority students and that feeling unsafe at
school was related to victimization for White and Hispanic students (Spriggs et al.,
2007). Students perception of school safety signicantly reduced physical bullying
as well as verbal/relational bullying in French students (Richard et al., 2011).
Negative school perceptions have a strong relationship with the involvement in
bullying across almost all 40 countries, and children with only two to three negative
school perceptions, experience twice the relative odds of being involved in bullying
as compared with children with no negative school perceptions (Harel-Fisch et al.,
2011). Increased school support was also negatively associated with racial bullying
and this relationship was stronger with higher levels of teacher diversity
(Larochette et al., 2010). Studies on school climate or school environment in
Germany also have similar results in relation to bullying involvement of children.
The Nuremberg Pupils Survey 1994 in Germany found that approval of violence
and violence of peers increased lying/name calling and ghting, but good relation-
ships with teachers signicantly decreased the violence (Funk, 2001).

Objective
The main objective of the present study is to examine bullying involvement of
Korean or Korean-German children who are presently living in Germany com-
pared to those in Korea, and further to examine whether childrens perceptions on
school environment are associated with bullying involvement of these children.

Methods
Measurement
Bullying is measured through a modied version of Olweus bully/victim question-
naire (Bauer, Lozano, & Rivara, 2007; Harel-Fisch et al., 2011; Lee, 2011; Olweus,
1993; Solberg & Olweus, 2003) such as 1) how often have you been bullied at school
during the past 3 months? and 2) how often have you taken part in bullying
another student at school during the past 3 months?
Bullying has three dimensions of bullying behaviors: Relational, verbal, and
physical bullying. The relational bullying behaviors were measured using four
items such as spreading rumors, purposely leaving a classmate out of things, ignor-
ing a classmate, and leaving a classmate out of conversations. The verbal bullying
behaviors were measured using six items: Teasing, taunting, threatening, calling
names, making sexual comments, and talking about physical defects. The physical
bullying behaviors were measured using ve items: Kicking, hitting, punching,

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8 School Psychology International 37(1)

cutting with sharp objects, deliberately pushing, and breaking bones. The response
options for these items are (1) never; (2) one or two times; (3) three times; (4) four
times; and (5) ve times or more. A cut-o point of three times or more is used to
indicate being involved in chronic bullying (Harel-Fisch et al., 2011). Reliability
analyses revealed a high level of internal consistency for items on being bullied
(Cronbach alpha 0.86) and bullying (Cronbach alpha 0.84).
School environment perceptions include six mandatory items around three
areas: a) academic achievement (academic achievement and feeling pressured by
school work); b) peer relationships (peers are together, peers are kind and helpful,
and peers accept me); and c) general school perception (liking school). Another 11
optional questions were related to three areas: a) rules and regulations (students
take part in making rules, students are treated too severely, rules are fair, school
events are organized), b) teacher-student relationships (teachers encourage students
to express views, teachers treat students fairly, extra help is gained from teacher
when needed, teachers are interested in students) and c) general school perceptions
(school is a nice place to be, I feel I belong, I feel safe) (Harel-Fisch et al., 2011,
p. 642). For all questions a ve-point Lickert scale was used ranging from strongly
agree to strongly disagree. Reliability analyses revealed a high level of internal
consistency for items on perceived school environment (Cronbach alpha 0.88).
Gender and schooling of child, age of parents, and educational level of parents
were input as control variables.

Study sample
A two-staged sampling strategy was employed for the present study on a cross-
sectional research design. To gain the eect size for statistical analyses, we planned
to collect more than 100 Korean or Korean-German children of fourth to elen-
venth grade (from fourth grade of primary school to second grade of high school)
living in Germany. We contacted every Korean language school and Korean
church to meet parent(s) or guardians in Munich, Erlangen, Regensburg,
Nuremberg, and Augsburg in the Bayern State of Germany using purposive sam-
pling and snowball sampling methods. We explained the study objectives to every
parent(s) or guardian and asked their consent to continue the survey. Only the
children whose parent(s) or guardian provided the consent were administered the
anonymous questionnaire. A cover letter stated that the survey purpose was to
better understand bullying involvement in schools and questionnaire items
included demographics, bullying involvement, and perceived school environment
of children. It took nine months from September 2012 to May 2013. Finally we
collected 114 Korean or Korean-German children of 4th to 11th grade. Excluding
unreliable responses, the nal sample composed 105 Korean or Korean-German
children living in Germany.
At the second phase, we planned to collect surveys from more than 100 Korean
children of fourth grade of primary school to second grade of high school living in
Korea to act as the control group. We visited nearby schools to meet principals and

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Bae 9

teachers to get permission to use the survey in Geoje, Sacheon, Jinju, and
Hapcheon in Gyeongnam Province in Korea. After permission of principals and
teachers, we selected 105 Korean children considering the composition rate of
gender and schooling of Korean children in Germany using quota sampling
method. Selected children were administered with same questionnaire. It took six
months from March 2014 to June 2014 and from September 2014 to November
2014. Excluding unreliable cases, the nal sample composed 95 children in Korea.

Results
Sample characteristics
Korean children in Germany and Korea were similar with respect to sex and
schooling. Age groups of parents were not dierent between Germany and
Korea. However, educational levels of parents in Germany were signicantly
higher than those in Korea (Table 1). Fathers of children in Germany were
66.7% from Korea, 23.5% from Germany, and 9.8% for other countries.

Bullying involvement of Korean children

The proportion of children who are involved in chronic bullying was 21.0% for
being bullied and 18.1% for bullying peers among Korean children in Germany.
Meanwhile, 33.7% of children were exposed to being bullied and 35.8% of children
were involved in bullying peers in Korea. As for bullying roles, overall 13.3% was
classied as victims, 10.5% as bullies, and 7.6% as bully/victims among Korean or
Korean-German children in Germany, whereas 7.4% was classied as victims,
9.5% as bullies, and 26.3% as bully/victims among children in Korea
(Chi-square 13.396, p 0.004).
As for bullying types, verbal bullying has the highest mean frequency among
children regardless of whether from Germany or Korea, but physical bullying has
the least frequency among children. Korean children in Germany were signicantly
less likely to be exposed to and less likely to be engaged in bullying behaviors than
those in Korea, with the exception of relational bullying of peers (Table 2).
Bivariate correlation analyses found an extremely high correlation between age
of father and age of mother (Pearson correlation coecient 0.913, p < 0.001),
thus excluded age of father from multivariate regression analyses.
Multicollinearity diagnostics conrmed no serious problem among predictors in
the regression analyses, as all the variables showed tolerance over 4.0 and variance
ination factor below 2.5 (Allison, 1999).
Multivariate regression analyses on bullying involvement of Korea children
show that country, schooling, age of mother, and school environment perceptions
were signicantly associated with the risk of being bullied. Country and school
environment perceptions were also signicantly associated with the risk of bullying
peers. Children in Germany were less likely to be exposed to and to be engaged in

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10 School Psychology International 37(1)

Table 1. Sample description.

Germany (105) Korea (95) Chi-square

Variable N (%) N (%) p-value

Sex of child
Boy 58 (55.2) 52 (54.7) 0.943
Girl 47 (44.8) 43 (45.3)
Schooling of child
Primary 26 (24.8) 24 (25.3) 0.522
Middle 41 (39.0) 41 (43.2)
High 38 (36.2) 30 (31.6)
Age of mother
30 s 48 (45.7) 33 (34.7) 0.287
40 s 49 (46.7) 53 (55.8)
50 s 8 (7.6) 9 (9.5)
Age of father
30 s 38 (37.6) 25 (26.9) 0.373
40 s 53 (51.5) 54 (58.1)
50 s 14 (10.9) 14 (15.1)
Education of mother
High school or less 6 (5.7) 28 (29.5) <0.000
College or university 62 (59.0) 56 (58.9)
Graduate level 37 (35.2) 11 (11.6)
Education of father
High school or less 6 (5.7) 21 (22.6) <0.000
College or university 45 (42.9) 63 (67.7)
Graduate level 54 (51.4) 9 (9.7)
Note: There were two missing cases in age and education of father, but were excluded from the total
percentages.

bullying behaviors than those in Korea, as were found from bivariate analyses.
Children in higher schooling with older age of mother were less likely to be exposed
to being bullied in schools. Childrens perceptions of school environment as being
more favorable were signicantly associated with decreased bullying involvement
(Table 3).

Discussion
The study objective was to examine bullying involvement of Korean or Korean-
German children living in Germany compared to those in Korea, and further to
examine factors associated with bullying involvement of the children. A total of 105

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Bae 11

Table 2. Mean frequency of bullying behaviors of Korean children in Germany and Korea.

Total Germany (105) Korea (95)

Bullying behaviors Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD) t-test p-value

Being bullied
- Relational 1.77 (3.86) 1.13 (2.34) 2.47 (4.96) 0.014
- Verbal 3.05 (5.29) 1.93 (3.54) 4.26 (6.52) 0.002
- Physical 1.14 (2.59) 0.77 (1.69) 1.55 (3.27) 0.032
Bullying peers
- Relational 1.65 (3.15) 1.52 (2.78) 1.79 (3.52) 0.545
- Verbal 2.76 (4.85) 2.08 (3.90) 3.51 (5.65) 0.038
- Physical 1.14 (2.98) 0.60 (1.41) 1.74 (3.99) 0.006

Table 3. Multivariate regression models on bullying involvement of Korean children

(N 197).

Being bullied Bullying

B  p-value B  p-value

Constant 23.757 0.000 14.747 0.000

Country (Germany) 1.999 0.180 0.017 2.120 0.219 0.005
Sex (boy) 0.181 0.106 0.807 0.163 0.017 0.809
Schooling 1.227 0.169 0.020 0.926 0.146 0.052
Age of mother 2.474 0.282 0.000 0.827 0.108 0.146
Education of mother 0.134 0.015 0.856 0.976 0.128 0.147
Education of father 0.409 0.048 0.588 0.382 0.051 0.577
School environment perception 0.126 0.239 0.001 0.116 0.252 0.000
F 6.289, p < 0.001 F 3.646, p 0.001
R2 0.188 R2 0.118

Korean or Korean-German children living in the Bayern State of Germany com-

posed the study sample and 95 Korean children from Gyeongnam Province, Korea
composed the control group.
The present study found that there is a signicant dierence in frequencies of
bullying involvement of children between Germany and Korea. Korean children
living in Germany were signicantly less likely to be exposed to and less likely to be
involved in bullying than those in Korea, except relational bullying. The nding is
consistent with those from cross-national comparison studies. Germany scores
quite low for school violence, scoring 7.08% for school violence as reported in
the 2006 HBSC data (bullied others two or more times) compared to the average

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12 School Psychology International 37(1)

9.05% among 37 countries (Elgar et al., 2009). Meanwhile, Korea scores quite high
for school violence with a score 32% for school violence relative to the average
27.8% of the total 37 countries reported on in a study using the Trends in
International Mathematics and Science Study data (Akiba et al., 2002).
Overall 13.3% was classied as victims, 10.5% as bullies, and 7.6% as bully/
victims among Korean children in Germany, similar to the study conducted in
Germany (Scheithauer et al., 2006). Meanwhile 7.4% was classied as victims,
9.5% as bullies, and 26.3% as bully/victims among children in Korea, consistent
with the survey result with prevalence rates of 12.4% for bully, 9.4% for victim,
and 22% for both bully and victim among 4,073 Korean students (Foundation for
Preventing Youth Violence, 2009). The rate of bully/victims among children in
Korea was higher compared to that in Germany. Bully/victim means typically
reciprocal violence where those who are bullied become bullies themselves or
vice versa (Ma, 2001). Studies have demonstrated there is a strong correlation
between being bullied and bullying peers and most bullies were also
victims (Fuchs, 2009; Marees & Petermann, 2010; Scheithauer et al., 2006;
Wolke et al., 2001).
Verbal bullying has the highest frequency of the three bullying behaviors regard-
less of location in Germany or Korea. This nding is similar to other studies
conducted in Germany (Funk, 2001; Fuchs, 2009) as well as those conducted in
Korea (Foundation for Preventing Youth Violence, 2009; Lee, 2010). Further,
verbal bullying and rude language are predominantly prevalent types of bullying
in most countries (Hampel et al., 2009; Hilton et al., 2010; Ma, 2001; Wei &
Jonson-Reid, 2011).
Being bullied was negatively associated with higher schooling. Scheithauer and
colleagues (2006) explain why bullying involvement decreases with increasing age
of children. Younger children have not acquired the social skills and assertiveness
skills to deal eectively with victimization and discourage further victimization.
Younger children have older children who could victimize them in school; with
increasing age there are fewer older children and therefore fewer opportunities to
become victimized. Being bullied was also negatively associated with increasing age
of mother. Parent(s) can educate their children on how to cope with bullying at
school or directly intervene in a childs bullying problems. Parental involvement
and surveillance practically discouraged bullies and helped victims (Ma, 2001).
Childrens perception of school environment to be more favorable signicantly
decreased bullying involvement of children regardless of whether in Germany or
Korea. The ndings conrm that more safe and supportive school environments
play a crucial role in suppressing bullying involvement of children in schools which
is in line with results from previous studies (Harel-Fisch et al., 2011; Larochette
et al., 2010; Spriggs et al., 2007; Richard et al., 2011).
Children in Germany were more likely to perceive school environment to be
favorable than those in Korea, but there was no statistical dierence (62.2 and 61.3,
p 0.516). However, childrens perceptions of school environment were negatively
associated with bullying peers among children in Germany (r 0.263, p 0.01),

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Bae 13

and negatively associated with being bullied among children in Korea (r 0.266,
p 0.01). Particularly, peer relationships were negatively associated with being
bullied among children (r 0.273, p 0.01), and student-teacher relationships
were negatively associated with bullying peers among children (r 0.208,
p 0.01). These ndings are in line with results from previous studies on bullying
involvement of children (Hilton et al., 2010; Murray-Harvey & Slee, 2010; Richard
et al., 2011).
In summary, Korean or Korean-German children in Germany were signicantly
less likely to be involved in bullying than those in Korea. Educational systems
might dierentiate bullying involvement of children in Germany and Korea.
National systems of education that emphasize competitiveness and high perfor-
mance were strongly associated with higher school violence (Akiba et al., 2002).
Studies suggest high rates of bullying in Asian countries such as Japan (Hilton
et al., 2010), Korea (Lee, 2010) and Taiwan (Chen & Astor, 2010). Learning stress
is the highest among Korean children in OECD countries. Most children in Korea
feel under pressure because of the performance driven academic system. In Korea,
a key issue has been the prevalence of suicides amongst students who suer from
excessive pressure to perform well academically, as well as those who display
suicidal tendencies as a result of bullying and school violence (Moore et al., 2008).
Bullying rates also depend on the interventions and prevention programs that
each country uses to tackle violence and bullying in schools. Since the late 1990s,
the discussion on intervention and prevention programs regarding school violence
has been intensied in Germany. The discussion of school violence has become part
of further training sessions for teachers and several programs are available for
teachers to use in an attempt to improve the organizational culture in a given
school as a whole (Fuchs, 2009). However, the full-scale discussion of school
violence and bullying in Korea did not appear until the suicide of one middle
school student after long term victimization received tremendous social media
attention in late 2011. In 2012, the Korean government established a comprehen-
sive plan to tackle school violence and accordingly conducted a national survey on
school violence and bullying among children.
Two implications are suggested based on the study ndings. One is early inter-
vention policy. Similar to other studies, the present study found that bullying
involvement of children decreases as the schooling of children advances. Thus,
early identication and prevention should be provided as early as low grades of
primary school and even kindergarten children. There are a variety of anti-bullying
programs such as curriculum interventions, multidisciplinary/whole school inter-
ventions, and social and behavioral skills group training interventions, which have
been tested and deemed eective in providing better results in several countries
(Moore et al., 2008).
Second, good student-teacher relationships can reduce the risk of bullying invol-
vement of children regardless of country and race/ethnicity of children, as con-
rmed in the present study. School violence and bullying usually occur at break
time or lunch time when teachers are absent and cannot intervene. Child-teacher

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14 School Psychology International 37(1)

trust relationship should be encouraged so as children willingly seek help when at

risk of bullying. Years of teaching experience exerted a signicant eect on Action
compared to Ignore by South Korean teachers (Yoon, Bauman, Choi, &
Hutchinson, 2011). That is, eective schools should encourage students to have
positive interactions with teachers and to have intensive supervision against bully-
ing (Ma, 2001).
The present study has a few limitations. Although we collected sucient eect
size for the analyses, sampling methods were of convenience, meaning that it does
not secure generalizability. The results may not be representative of other chil-
dren in Germany or Korea, thus it is dicult to directly compare bullying invol-
vement of children in other places and other countries. Second, bullying
experience was measured on the response of children during the past three
months. There may be memory bias. Nevertheless, the present study is important
as it provides some empirical evidence on bullying involvement of Korean or
Korean-German children in Germany. Study results will make a signicant con-
tribution to international research in bullying involvement of ethnic minority
children in the multicultural context, and lead to prevention of bullying against
them in schools.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conicts of interest with respect to the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following nancial support for the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Korea Research
Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2012-0721).

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Author biography
Hwa-ok Bae, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Social Welfare at the
Gyeongsang National University in the Republic of Korea. Dr Bae has published
several articles on child maltreatment, school violence, and child poverty at home
and abroad. She has also worked on governmental research projects on childrens
rights and anti-poverty policy for children. She teaches courses in child welfare,
youth welfare, and children with disabilities.

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