Bullying among children and adolescents

Bullying includes intention of harm, repetitiveness and power imbalance, and is associated with a wide‐range of indices of short‐ and long‐term maladjustment. Both being a victim and being a bully are risk factors. The participant role model broadens the scope of direct involvement in bullying by including the parts played by other peers who may not be classified as either victims or bullies: assistants, reinforcers, outsiders, and defenders. Cyberbullying has emerged in recent decades as an extension of, and addition to, traditional bullying. Bullying prevention programs such as Olweus Bullying Prevention Program and the KiVa anti‐bullying program have been developed and scientifically evaluated to counteract bullying in school. Bullying is a field with clear and immediate relevance to the lives of children and young people. It is a dynamic empirical literature that takes into consideration the complexity of young people’s lives, their interactions, and the important ways in which these have changed over time. Far from being purely an academic exercise, this work is directly linked to intervention and prevention efforts. The current Special Issue tries to reflect this diversity of interest and effort across the field, bringing together the work of a wide group of international scholars.