Bullying exposure prevalence among school-age children and adolescents receiving social work intervention in a community mental health research and training setting

Prior research has examined the prevalence of bullying exposure among school-age children and adolescents. However, data was primarily gathered from a non-clinical population within a school-based setting. The present study examined bullying exposure among a clinical population of school-age children and adolescents who are receiving social work intervention in a community mental health research and training setting. The purpose of the study was to obtain the bullying exposure prevalence rate of a clinical population, in order to compare it to the non-clinical population presented in the literature. It was hypothesized that the prevalence rate obtained from this study would be lower than the national prevalence rate. An epidemiological case record review of 104 cases from the years 2011 to 2012 was conducted at The University of Texas at Arlington's Center for Clinical Social Work (CCSW), utilizing a data extraction form to determine the prevalence of bullying exposure. The findings concluded that the bullying exposure prevalence rate for the CCSW's clinical school-age population (grades pre-school through 12) was 17.3%. This rate was compared to the national rate, which is between 20% (grades 9 through 12) and 28% (grades 6 through 12). The hypothesis was confirmed.