The incidence of peer bullying as multiple maltreatment among Spanish secondary school students

Two national reports on peer bullying and social exclusion in schools promoted by the Spanish Ombudsman and UNICEF (2000, 2007) established the state of the art of bullying incidence in secondary schools, its forms, and differences according gender, school year or type of school amongst the many aspects tackled by both studies. One more step in the deepening into the nature of peer bullying and social exclusion in schools is to clarify whether the students who are victims of bullying are so in a single way, i.e. through the same type of action or whether they are bullied in multiple forms. The present study aims first at finding out the existence of multiple bullying among the secondary school students participating in the Second Ombudsman´s Report. Second to determine whether it consists of experiencing various behaviors within the same category, e.g. verbal bullying, or various behaviors across categories (e.g. being insulted and stolen), as well as the incidence of both types of multiple maltreatment. For that new analysis of the information provided by the 3000 participants are carried out. Only the perspective of victims are presented pointing to the existence of multiple maltreatment, especially across categories.