Bullying is a rising, wide-spread school-age phenomenon in which there is growing interest and awareness both internationally and in Australia (Rigby & Smith, 2011). In a national study (2009), it was reported that approximately, one in four Year 4, to Year 9 Australian students (27%) reported being bullied every few weeks with frequent school bullying being the highest among Year 5 (32%) and Year 8 (29%). 83% of students who bully others online also bully others in person. Bystanders (peers) present during bullying interactions (87%) played a vital role in the bullying process (Our Watch, 2015).
Bullying can be described as the intentional, repeated misuse of power in a relationship, involving physical, verbal and/or social behaviour, causing physical and/or psychological harm (Idsoe et al. 2012). It involves; individuals or a group’s abuse of power, in person or online, either overtly or covertly (Idsoe et al. 2012). This definition refers to the specific behaviours of the perpetrator of abuse and the emotional and physical harm they inflict on the victim.
Exposure to ongoing bullying can result in low-self esteem, social-difficulties, self-harm, suicide, anxiety, depression, drug/alcohol abuse, eating disorders (Coggan et al. 2012) and risk for PTSD in adulthood (Idsoe et al. 2012). The consequences of bullying not only impact victims of peer abuse, but also members of the school community, including bullies who often continue to engage in the repeated victimisation of others after they leave school.

More recently neuroscience has made giant strides in aiding our understanding of human-aggression, and the effects of bullying on the brain. Bullying is defined as a more complex phenomenon involving biological, psychological and social systems (Rossouw, 2005). This definition takes into consideration the role of neurobiological markers and the detrimental effects of bullying on neuro-development, neuro-chemical production and changes in neural structure and functioning of the brains of both the bullied and the person bullying (Kaya & Rossouw, 2016).
An enormous amount of existing literature, anti-bullying programs, rules and policies of zero tolerance are available to schools and teachers to try to tackle the problem of bullying. However, many of these top-down approaches and preventative strategies are difficult to implement, hard for teachers to enforce, and slow to yield results. Addressing bullying from a bottom-up approach provides neurobiological strategies to guide students to actively engage in facilitating change (Kaya & Rossouw, 2016). Top-down strategies and cognitive interventions can then be applied.
“Minds behind Bullying”, incorporating the application of neuroscience to existing resources. This Animation and instruction eBook manual is intended to add to existing resources by incorporating a neuropsychotheraputic approach to current educational interventions providing an integrated neurobiological approach for both the victims and perpetrators of bullying abuse, incorporating the key principles of neuropsychotherapy.