Speaker
Description
Goals of the presentation
The PISA team's presentation at WABF 2025 has two main objectives:
1. Share comparative-international insights on bullying based on PISA data collected in 80 countries between 2015 and 2022.
2. Engage participants in a constructive discussion about ways to improve PISA’s data collection on bullying in 2029. Particular focus will be placed on cyberbullying, which is of growing interest for PISA-participating countries.
Bullying in Comparative Perspective: PISA data and insights
Since 2015, PISA has been collecting data on bullying among 15-year-olds at school, updating these findings in 2018 and 2022. The data reveals that bullying is prevalent globally, with significant differences across countries:
• On average across OECD countries, 20% of students reported being bullied at least a few times a month (2022).
• In all PISA-participating countries, verbal and relational bullying (e.g. making fun of other students, spreading nasty rumours) is more common than physical bullying (e.g. hitting or pushing other students around, taking away or destroying things that belong to other students).
• There are large differences in prevalence across countries. For example, in Jamaica* and the Philippines over 10% of students reported that they were threatened by other students at least a few times a month, while in Japan and Korea only 1% of students reported being threatened.
PISA data underscores the negative impact of bullying on academic achievement, revealing that schools with high bullying rates (over 10% of students frequently bullied) score significantly lower in science compared to schools with low rates of bullying (under 5%). This suggests a cyclical relationship between bullying, school disengagement, and underperformance.
How PISA Could Expand Its Data Collection on Bullying
Cyberbullying has emerged as a major concern for education systems, and PISA is exploring ways to include this dimension in the 2029 data collection. While no direct measures of cyberbullying exist in the main PISA survey, the optional ICT questionnaire in 2022 touched upon the issue by asking students about:
• "Receiving unkind, vulgar, or offensive messages, comments, or videos."
• "Having information about themselves publicly displayed online without consent."
These items, or refined versions, may be included in PISA 2029. Additionally, the survey may address new dimensions such as:
• Aggressors and perpetrators: Understanding the characteristics of students who bully or cyberbully others.
• Bystanders: Exploring the role of observers in bullying or cyberbullying incidents.
Expanding these measures would provide deeper insights into the prevalence and characteristics of bullying, as well as inform strategies for prevention and intervention.
