Morgan Haen

ECE 150

Final Inquiry

24 April 2019

Final Inquiry

Is bullying more common in younger children because they bully differently than the

older children?

I chose this question because bullying is common in the older school aged children. But

is bullying more common in younger children? I will be using research, asking another early

childhood students, and my own evidence. This question has been in my mind since I began

working at a daycare center near my hometown. I thought that maybe since younger children

don’t quite understand how bullying works.

In my research I found many different outlooks. According to Kyle Snow from NAEYC,

“Data from one study of children’s experience with violence showed that 20.4% of children ages

2-5 had experienced physical bullying and 14.6% had been teased (verbally bullied)”. So this is

stating that bullying is more common among younger children than school aged children. Snow

also said, “They report one study of 4-year-olds showing 25% of children as bullies and 22% as

victims, and 2% as victim/bully.” So many younger children are either taking a part of bullying

or are being a bully themselves.

I also found on the EDC website, that bullying behaviors emerge in early childhood

settings. When reading through the Eyes on Bullying in Early Childhood booklet, I found many

different interesting facts and information. Kim Storey and Ron Slaby said, “Teachers in early

childhood settings often overlook bullying, for a variety of reasons. They may think that young
children are too naïve and innocent to bully…”. I found this very interesting because as a

upcoming teacher, it is important to understand that all ages can bully, especially since the

younger children are beginning to bully more than school-aged children. Storey and Slaby also

said, “Young children’s bullying often looks different from bullying among older children”. This

may also cause teachers to believe that the younger children aren’t bullying and they are just

being mean.

When asking another student, I asked one of my friends that is currently a South Dakota

State student who is in the cooperative program. She works at one of the schools in the

Brookings area. She is an aide that helps in the morning with recess and is around the kids. I

asked her several questions about my topic. I asked her if she noticed bullying around the

younger children during recess, she replied, “Yes, the younger kids are bullying, and the older

kids bully around the younger kids as well”. I also asked her if she thought that the younger kids

bully more than the older kids, and she said “No, a little less than the older kids”. The last

question I asked her was if she thought that the younger kids understand what bullying was. She

replied back to me, “I don’t believe that the younger kids don’t really understand what bullying

is”.

When watching children at my work place, I noticed that toddlers were bullying more

than the school-aged kids were. When I would be in the toddler room, which are 1-3-year-olds, I

noticed that the teachers and myself would be telling them, “no biting”, “use kind hands”,

“please don’t hit our friends”, and many other things. When I would be in the school-aged room

I would notice them playing together nicely, the teachers and I would maybe say one or two

things a day. But the toddlers had to be constantly reminded.

 My own experience has led me to believe that the younger aged children, such as toddlers

and sometimes preschoolers, are bullying because they do not understand what bullying is. They

know that they are not acting the correct way, but they do not understand that it is bullying.

When asking the preschoolers as to why they would either hit their friends, they would say

things such as “He was using my toy”, “She hit me first”, and “Because I wanted to”. But when

asked if they knew it was bullying to do this to their friends, they would ask what bullying was

and they wouldn’t understand what it was.

I believe that younger children, such as preschoolers and toddlers may have bullying in

their classrooms more often than the school-aged children because not only are the younger kids

around bullying, they are also bullying differently than the older children. I also believe this

because the younger children may not understand what bullying is and how bullying works.

Through my findings, I have realized that younger children are going to be bullies more often

because the bullying concept comes into their lives early on and that they are going to have this

instinct when playing with other children.

This process might be used when I am a teacher when a child may be having difficulties

with bullying (as they are the victim) or if they are the actual bully themselves. I feel as though

this may help me when I am going to be a teacher because this will help me think of different

ways to teach, make lessons, make a project, and many other things. This process is going to

help me even this summer at my summer job at the daycare center, as my boss has asked me to

begin making lesson plans so when I am at the daycare center, I am able to have a lesson with all

three different age groups.

 Resources

EDC Learning Transforms Lives. Preventing bullying in early childhood. PromotePrevent

Preventing Bullying. Retrieved from

http://preventingbullying.promoteprevent.org/preventing-bullying-in-early-childhood

Snow, K. (2014, October 27). Bullying in early childhood. NAEYC. Retrieved from

https://www.naeyc.org/resources/blog/bullying-early-childhood

Storey, K and Slaby R. (2013). Bullying in early childhood. Eyes on Bullying in Early

Childhood. Retrieved from http://eyesonbullying.org/pdfs/eob-early-childhood-508.pdf