Abstract:

Increased emergence of bullying among children has become a growing concern through recent years. Research on bullying has revealed devastating effects on student’s developmental and behavioural outcomes, and that children with special developmental or physical needs may be at even greater risk for bullying than “typical” peers. Although inclusion in regular schools is an international movement strengthened with the passing of the Salamanca Statement (19954), it is clear that the attitudes and intentions of students without disabilities play a critical role in the successful inclusion of students with special needs (SWN). If students without disabilities do not perceive their peer with disability as a valuable member of the class or friend, then the student with disability may have fewer opportunities of social interactions, may be teased and socially isolated. Therefore, research on inclusive programs designed to strength supportive relationships within these students’ lives should be examined and implemented.
We have used data from the Survey on Disability, Personal Autonomy and Dependency Situations, carried out by the National Institute of Statistics during 2008 to 96,075 representative Spanish households. The purpose was to analyze the relationship between SWN and suffering peer victimization, and what was the impact over observed absenteeism rate. According to this survey, 78,300 children aged from 6 to 15 years old suffered some type of illness or disability for doing daily living activities (which represented 18.41 per 1,000 inhabitants of the same age).
The observed schooling rate was very high (only 2.78% were not schooled, 19.08% attended to segregated schools and 78.14% attended to regular schools). However, from those who were schooled (with or without specific support programs), 80.72% of SWN were identified as victims of bullying.
First, we estimated a probit model for the probability of suffering peer discrimination. It revealed that suffering mobility limitation, speech/language disorder or moderate retardation, and being male increased this probability. By the contrary being visual impaired or living in a municipality with less than 10,000 inhabitants decreased it. And what is very important, those schools which offered special support to SWN and had undertaken regular teaching and discussions about congenital or acquired disability showed a decrease of 48.79% in the probability of suffering bullying.
On the other hand, SWN reported their absenteeism degree during the last year (less than 1 week, 1-3 weeks, 1-3 months, 3-6 months, 6 or more months). We estimated an ordered probit model for the probability of being absent from school including as explanatory variables sociodemographic characteristics, health variables and having felt discriminated. Results revealed that the absenteeism degree was significantly lower in schools with a full-time educational assistant for each SWN.
Finally, evidence obtained suggests that while many of the characteristics that make SWN more vulnerable to bullying are things that cannot easily change (social skill deficits coinciding with cognitive immaturity), environmental factors may be easier to improve. As a consequence, educational policies should emphasize and update teachers’ instruction concerning these topics, so that they could persuade pupils in their classes to be more tolerant, to exhibit more patience and if possible to encourage these students with special needs.

Keywords:

Bullying, absenteeism, disability, special education.