Research on school bullying and victimization: What have we learned and where do we go from here?

This special issue on bullying and victimization in School Psychology Review highlights current research efforts in American schools on bullying and peer victimization, and how this research can inform prevention and intervention planning. This introductory article provides a brief overview of several major insights gained over the last decade from research on bullying in school-aged youth and sets the stage for the special issue. Research on psychosocial correlates in bullying behaviors is reviewed and four insights that provide directions for future research are derived. The contributing authors in the special issue augment these insights by examining the influence of the peer ecology on bullying (Rodkin & Hodges, 2003), using longitudinal and multivariate methodologies in bullying research (Long & Pellegrini, 2003), assessing the climates within the school where bullying typically occurs (Leff, Power, Costigan, & Manz, 2003), exploring implementation issues of school-wide bullying prevention programming (Orpinas, Home, & Staniszewski, 2003), reviewing laws and policies to address bullying (Limber & Small, 2003), and challenging researchers to reach a consensus on bullying research (Furlong, Morrison, Greif, 2003).