Guest editorial

Bullying affects the lives of many children in school. Some are victims, some take part in bullying others, and many are, to a greater or lesser extent, onlookers or witnesses of bullying behaviours. Considered as a systematic abuse of power, bullying can be seen as an infringement of the rights of a child to a happy and productive life, inside and outside school (Greene 2006). Usually seen as something that happens in schools and amongst peers, the advent of cyberbullying by mobile phones and via the internet, primarily in this century, has seen bullying spread to the ‘global playground’ (Li, Cross and Smith 2012). Although some bullying can be seen as very severe and pathological, the extent of bullying in schools suggests that much of it is within the normal range of behaviours. Indeed for some children who bully others there can be payoffs, in terms of for example demonstration of power and status in the peer group. This does not make such behaviours any less undesirable, from the point of view of general welfare of young people and the positive environment of a school or other venue where children meet. It is well established that bullying can have many negative consequences, especially for the victims of course, but more widely for all involved (Arseneault, Bowes and Shakoor 2009). Cyberbullying now takes up an appreciable fraction of all bullying in young people, and it has its own distinctive characteristics (Smith 2012). For example, it is primarily indirect rather than face-to-face, and may be anonymous; the perpetrator does not usually see the victim’s reaction, at least in the short term; the breadth of the potential audience is increased; and it is difficult to escape from, as the victim may be sent messages to their mobile or computer, or access nasty website comments, wherever they are. Cyberbullying too has negative consequences, and these are often thought to be worse than for traditional bullying, due to the characteristics above. However this is not necessarily the case, and there is a lively debate about the importance of cyberbullying, its definition and its consequences (Bauman, Walker and Cross 2012). This special issue on bullying and cyberbullying contains many new research findings relevant to the effects of bullying and cyberbullying. These are mainly cross-sectional studies, so it is most prudent to talk about emotional and behavioural correlates, although three studies present longitudinal data where more direct causal relations can be inferred. The collection is truly international, with data sets from 12 countries represented in the 15 articles, reflecting the widespread interest and concern about bullying and cyberbullying. The collection starts with five papers primarily on traditional forms of bullying, including two focussing on bullying in immigrant children, a relatively new but clearly important topic. Two papers then introduce the topic of cyberbullying, with new perspectives on the kinds of phenomena involved. The remaining eight papers examine correlates or consequences of cyberbullying, often with traditional bullying as a comparison. Jennifer and Cowie, in the first article, used semi-structured interviews in two primary schools in England. Pictorial vignettes depicting a hypothetical story of peer bullying were employed, showing bully, victim, and follower characters. Pupils were asked about the moral emotions that characters might be feeling (as other), and then how they might feel in