Reviewed by Jill Ward, University of Illinois

This book is Miriam A. Eliasson’s doctoral thesis at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet. The thesis aims to understand the causes and effects of verbal abuse in school by conducting four studies in which students in grades six and eight in mid-sized Swedish towns are surveyed, interviewed, and observed. E’s specific focus is on how gender and age are constructed by verbal abuse, acknowledging the need for further research into class, race, and ethnicity. The book is organized much like a lengthy article, with an introduction, aims, methods, summary of main results, discussion, and conclusions (as well as acknowledgments and references). Rather unusual is the inclusion of four of E’s original articles from which the thesis was generated. These studies provide examples of the verbal abuse that is described in the main thesis.

The ‘Introduction’ (1–15) provides background on previous research on verbal abuse in school, and a brief description of the Swedish school system. Theoretical frameworks of social constructionism, discourse analysis, and identity construction are discussed as they are used for analysis. In the ‘Aims’ section (16), E details objectives for understanding the construction of gender and age through verbal abuse, and the meaning-making potential this abuse has for students. ‘Methods’ (17–24) describes the four studies that were conducted by the author, including a survey of grades six and eight students in the mid-sized Swedish city of Uddevalla and observations and interviews of grade eight students and teachers in inner-city and suburban Stockholm.

Studies 1–4 are analyzed in the ‘Summary of main results’ (25–33). Study 1 finds that boys tend to be verbally abusive the most, often towards both boys and girls. Girls tend to receive sexual name-calling. However, all students’ well-being diminishes with increased abuse. Study 2 demonstrates that there are different gendered perceptions of verbal abuse. Boys who do not abuse are constructed as being feminine. Additionally, while this abuse may be considered friendly among boys, among girls abuse is considered immature and negative. Study 3 brings in notions of maturity in verbal abuse, which is generally considered a phase of adolescence. Study 4 shows how removal of agency can be used as an excuse to abuse. As a result, abusive terms may lose their meaning as they are repeated.

‘Discussion’ follows (34–47), delving deeper into students’ meaning-making of insults and the construction of age and gender (and by extension, sexuality) with respect to verbal abuse and who has access to it. Other factors, such as ethnicity and class, may also contribute to identity construction through verbal abuse, but E acknowledges the necessity of further research in this area. The strengths and limitations of these studies are discussed in this section along with implications for schools and for further research.

E’s ‘Conclusions’ (48–49) show the prevalence of verbal abuse used in heterosexual and masculine construction of the eighth-grade boys as it relates to power and status within the school hierarchy.