Despite the high incidence of bullying among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), little research has been conducted with people with IDD as participants reporting their own perceptions and experiences of bullying. To address this shortcoming, we interviewed 18 adults with IDD regarding these issues. Four major themes emerged from our qualitative analysis of the transcribed interviews: (a) bullying is hurtful, (b) why people bully, (c) bullying takes many forms, and (d) bullying can happen anywhere. Though participants' definitions of bullying and explanations for why people bully aligned well with traditional understandings, several reported incidents of bullying were discrepant from the traditional definition, including incidents of abuse and rude behavior. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities is the property of American Association on Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)