Bullying as a moral issue

In ordinary language, the term 'bullying' is mainly used to refer to a generic set of dysfunctional conduct by certain pupils that disrupts the smooth running of activities carried out in educational contexts, primarily school. Anti-social actions such as vandalism, hooliganism or defiance of adults are also sometimes improperly considered forms of bullying. Psychological research has circumscribed the application of the term to a series of aggressive behaviours with precise characteristics connected to the agent's lucid intentionality, the temporal dimension and the relational dimension. These characteristics legitimise the qualification of bullying as a 'moral problem'. Viewed from this perspective, the phenomenon calls for a review of educational practices aimed at combating and reducing it.