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To the Editor: In their study of bullying, Dr Nansel and colleagues¹ cite the work of Olweus² to highlight individual pathology and suffering in bullies and those bullied. While Olweus indeed addresses such issues in his work, the primary characteristic of his model of bullying and his recommended interventions is an emphasis on systemic factors, especially the role of adult and institutional inaction in enabling bullying. In contrast to this systemic approach, there are 2 major problems with emphasizing the individual pathology of bullies and their targets.

First, an individualistic emphasis leads to an underestimation of the pervasiveness of bullying and a misunderstanding of its nature. In social systems in which adults do not implement systemic antibullying programs and have attitudes that are passive or accepting of bullying as normative or inevitable (eg, "boys will be boys"), bullying will commonly occur. All children are affected by being in systems in . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Tonja Nansel, PhD; Bruce Simons-Morton, EdD,MPH; Peter Scheidt, MD,MPH
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Bethesda, Md

Mary D. Overpeck, DrPH
Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau
Rockville, Md

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Bullying Behaviors Among US Youth: Prevalence and Association With Psychosocial Adjustment
Tonja R. Nansel, Mary Overpeck, Ramani S. Pilla, W. June Ruan, Bruce Simons-Morton, and Peter Scheidt
JAMA. 2001;285(16):2094-2100.
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