Bullying in music and theater education

What is it about?

Are music and theater students bullied more often than their non-arts peers? It turns out that they are. Using national data from the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, we found that music and theater students in middle and high schools were more likely to be victims of in-person bullying. We estimate that just over 1 in 3 performing arts students are victims of bullying, compared to the smaller rate of 1 in 4 for non-arts students.

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Why is it important?

This is the first major analysis of national data in the United States to establish the prevalence rates of bullying victimization among arts and non-arts students. Other research has shown that arts students generally have more positive developmental outcomes in adolescence than non-arts students; this analysis suggests that these positive outcomes are not a due to reduced bullying of arts students and that these positive outcomes for arts students occur despite their increased risk of being bullied.