Abstract
Bullying, a pervasive and familiar issue in schools poses a significant threat to learners by
transforming the school environment into a hostile and unsafe space and by infringing upon
learners’ rights to a secure learning environment. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence
and nature of bullying, specifically victimisation and perpetration, among high school learners in
the Gauteng province. The study utilized a quantitative approach, employing a descriptive design
to explore the extent and forms of bullying among a sample of high school learners in the City of
Ekurhuleni, Gauteng Province, South Africa. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s social ecological
model (1979), this study sought to highlight the prevalence and nature of bullying victimisation
and perpetration focusing on the main forms of bullying, including physical, verbal, relational,
and cyberbullying, as identified in the international literature. The data was collected from a
sample of 467 learners, aged between 12-17 years, attending grades 8 to 12, using the Bullying
and Cyberbullying Scale for Adolescents (BCS-A) (Thomas et al., 2018). The overall results
indicated that the prevalence of bullying perpetration was approximately 42%, while the
prevalence of victimisation was approximately 66%. Notably, female learners experienced more
verbal, relational, and cyber victimisation compared to male learners. No statistically significant
gender differences were found in bullying perpetration. In terms of age, the 12 to13 year-olds
experienced bullying victimisation more than the other age groups. Moreover, the results showed
that both victimisation and perpetration of bullying during adolescence were significantly
associated with depressive symptoms. The findings of this study when compared to previous
research, indicate a possible increase in school bullying in South Africa. This trend may be
linked to growing availability of social media, which could be contributing to the rise in
cyberbullying incidents. With increased access to social media potentially contributing to the
higher incidents of cyberbullying. Therefore, it is crucial to implement strategies to create
awareness to learners, about the systems they interact with, to mitigate this phenomenon.
Furthermore, the urgent implementation of policies for handling of bullying in schools,
leveraging the involvement of social workers, is necessary to curb this phenomenon in the school
environment.
Keywords: Bullying prevalence; nature of bullying; victimisation; perpetration; learners,
schools