Thanks to the numerous studies on bullying conducted since the 1970s, today the topic enjoys a high level of awareness (Menesini & Nocentini, 2015; Scierri & Batini, 2021). Various forms of aggression, abuse and violence, repeated and perpetuated over time, by one peer onto another one unable to defend him/herself, are the keys characteristics of bullying. According to Olweus (2013), bullying is the repeated physical, verbal or psychological violence, that lasts over time, with both an ex-ante and ex-post imbalance between victim and perpetrator. The victim(s) chosen by the bully are usually physically and psychologically weaker than him/herself, are persecuted for a long time with heavy psychological, emotional and relational consequences. Bullying is described as multidimensional, dynamic, complex and characterized by three elements: asymmetry, persistence and intentionality (Olweus, 1994; 1998; 2013; Menesini, 2000).

According to Volturo (2011), the bully and the victim are always surrounded by other figures. Thus, bullying does not only involve the perpetrator and the victim but creates a complex relational dynamic. Moreover, age affects the different manifestations of oppression by showing how, for example, with the advance of adolescence we move more frequently towards forms of indirect and relational aggression (Rivers & Smith, 1994). The victims of bullying are children and young people, among them most likely are foreigners, disabled, homosexuals and of course, girls who are also the victims of social misogyny. In short, the categories stigmatized by the dominant group in society at large. The difficulty in identifying clear and unambiguous motivations for aggression is linked to the fact that this phenomenon arises from many socio-cultural factors, whose interaction acts as a trigger for bullying. It is also important to note that bullying occurs at school and not in other contexts. The school is not only the “stage” for children interaction, i.e., where it plays out, but it is also a central place in its generation. Group dynamics and the phenomena of peer reputation building must therefore be examined in light of this specific environment that today is the only one left within our society where children spend many hours a day among hundreds of peers (Author 1 & 2, 2022).

Our study seeks to examine the complex phenomenon of bullying among teenage girls at school (ages 14-16). Albeit it is still perceived as less common as bullying among boys, violence and aggressions among girls are on the rise, and it has become a pressing concern in the field of education. Despite this reality, there is a relative dearth of empirical and/or multi-method research on the topic. Our nation-wide study “Female Bullying at School: an intersectional mixed-method investigation”, which involved colleagues from 5 other Italian Universities (Milan-Bicocca, Genoa, Perugia, Foggia and Enna “Kore”), approaches bullying from an interdisciplinary standpoint, using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, aiming to pursue two main objectives:

1. To reach a deeper understanding of female bullying based on an intersectional point of view that examines both the relational dynamics, and behaviours of bullies, bullied and bystanders.

2. To survey and assess the incidence of female bullying in Italy.

Given the existing evidence that female bullying is essentially an intragender phenomenon (Author,  forthcoming), we chose to interpret aggressive behaviours and female (cyber)bullying as an arena of contention in which different “models of femininity” are compared and contrasted, to the point that we might consider the phenomenon an enactment of societal gender norms.

This hypothesis has been partially confirmed in the preliminary inquiry developed with students, age 18, in 2018-19 in Verona (Author 1 & 2, 2022).

To avoid using “male bullying” as the primary benchmark in our interpretation of female violence, we propose to examine the issue of girls’ victimization at school within the intra-female-gender relationships framework through the adoption of the intersectional perspective due to female bullying “invisibility” (SooHoo, 2009). The aim is to surface the specificity of the phenomenon that in the scientific literature seems to be a prerogative of the neutral-masculine interpretation. Specifically, during the pandemic, we have witnessed the rise of online bullying favored by quarantine and physical distance (Barlett et al. 2021) together with an increase in its psychological and physical manifestations such as self-cutting practices, suicides, depression, mental disease, nerves breakdown, and so on (Courtney et al. 2020; Authors, 1& 2; Burgio, 2022). Although our study knits together qualitative and quantitative methodologies to explore the complex phenomenon of female bullying and puts forward an integrated perspective - straddling the disciplines of psychology and pedagogy - this paper will focus only on the collected qualitative data. Namely, the insights gathered from the 10 Web-Based Focus Groups (Brown et al., 2021) that we organized in 2020 during the pandemic lockdown with 52 students between the age of 14 and 16 collected from 5 different secondary schools in the city of Verona. Due to the nation-wide scale of the whole study, we decided as research group to follow the Framework Analysis approach (Goldsmith, 2021; Smith & Firth, 2011) as already described elsewhere (Authors, forthcoming). Through the cross-check analysis of the qualitative data, the whole research group collectively established an Analytical Framework conducive to capture the specific nuances of female bullying in each socio-spatial context. More specifically, this Framework is organized into macro-categories as follow: 1. Representations (of female bullying) 2. Events (suffered or attended) 3. Emotions/feelings (perceived and experienced during violent events) 4. Strategies/way out suggestions 5. Lessons learned 6. Impact/consequences 7. Process results (evaluation of the research experience) 8. Adults (teachers, parents, etc.) 9. Places/space of female bullying 10. Bystanders

As demonstrated by the preliminary investigation (Authors 1 & 2, 2022), the aggressiveness and bullying among teenage girls normally rest on different pattern of victimizations. Firstly, the body is properly considered the ‘battlefield’ of contentions and adolescents’ affirmation. The perceived differences, such as the ideal of thinness, perfectness, skin color, religion, economic status and popularity are usually the most reported triggers that unleash violence, marginalization, digital aggressiveness, and discriminations among girls. Moreover, what strongly arise is that Italian schools have effectively failed to acknowledge the extent of the phenomenon, which is present and, in the perception of the students, constitutes a crisis in education. Female bullying stems from ideas relative to what a woman/female should be. Moreover, the importance of the peer group stands out: peer relationships are basically the material and non-material space where bullying takes shape and form. It mostly happens in the classroom, via WhatsApp and other Social Media, before and after school-time (Batini et al. forthcoming). Nevertheless, FGs participants highlighted the ineffectiveness of educational tools and strategies adopted by school communities to deal with conflicts and violence. School teachers and families resulted as almost unable to support and help young girls facing and experiencing peers bullying. Eventually, the analysis and exploration of these data will provide the basis for planning the subsequent phases of the study that necessarily shall be focused upon concrete protocols and prevention strategies for schools, teenagers, teachers, and families. Our intention, thanks to the comprehensiveness of the dataset, is to establish a few concrete actions in a participatory fashion among the schools that took part in the research project.

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