Here are some of the best questions for an elementary school student survey about bullying, plus tips on how to create them. With Specific, you can build your own bullying survey for students in seconds, powered by AI and expert research best practices.
Best open-ended questions for elementary school student survey about bullying
Open-ended questions let students share their experiences in their own words. These questions give us rich, qualitative data and context—turning fleeting answers into deeper insights. They are particularly useful when you need to understand feelings, motivations, or the story behind the incident, not just yes/no responses. Research shows that open-ended questions in surveys allow respondents to express themselves, resulting in more meaningful feedback and richer insights for educators and policy-makers. [2]
Can you describe a time when you saw or experienced bullying at school?
How did you feel when you saw someone being bullied?
What do you think makes someone start bullying others?
How do you usually react when you see bullying happening?
If you could change something at school to make it safer, what would it be?
What do you wish adults at your school understood better about bullying?
How do you think bullying affects students at your school?
What would you tell a new student about handling bullying at this school?
Who do you talk to if you or a friend are being bullied?
What advice do you have for someone who is being bullied?
These open prompts help us go beyond the numbers and hear students’ authentic voices—sometimes surfacing hidden issues no multiple-choice can reach.
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for elementary school student survey about bullying
Single-select multiple-choice questions let us quantify experiences or opinions. They are especially helpful when kids need a bit of structure to express themselves, or when we want to measure the scale of a problem. Sometimes, it’s easier for students to choose an option than to write out their thoughts, which can lower barriers to participation and help start the right conversation. For instance, with bullying on the rise—40% of kids report being bullied on school campuses, up 14 percentage points in just five years [1]—quantifying these experiences shows both the scope and urgency.
Here are three strong multiple-choice questions with answer options:
Question: How often have you witnessed bullying at school this year?
Never
Once or twice
A few times
Many times
Other
Question: Who do you usually tell if you see bullying happening?
No one
A friend
A teacher or other adult at school
Family member
Other
Question: Where does bullying happen most often?
Classroom
Hallway
Playground
Online (social media or texting)
Other
When to follow up with "why?" Adding a “why” follow-up question is useful right after a multiple-choice—especially when we want to understand the reasons behind student choices. For instance, if a student answers that bullying happens most on the playground, we can ask, “Why do you think bullying happens most often on the playground?” This digs into context we wouldn’t get otherwise.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Including “Other” empowers students who feel their experience isn’t covered in the listed options. Following up on “Other” lets us uncover unexpected patterns and nuances—including unique safe spaces or situations that fixed lists might miss.
NPS (Net Promoter Score) question for an elementary school student bullying survey
NPS is usually used to measure loyalty, but it can be adapted to gauge how safe students feel at school. For a student bullying survey, an NPS-style question asks, “On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this school as a safe place to your friends?” This gives us a numeric pulse—making it easy to spot shifts over time, compare grades, and act on trends. Specific even has a tailored NPS survey preset for elementary school students about bullying that guides the full conversation, including why students chose their rating and how to improve.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are a game-changer for deepening student feedback. Instead of stopping at a surface-level answer, we can use smart follow-ups to clarify, contextualize, and understand the “why” behind student responses. Automated follow-up questions—like the ones used by Specific—let us collect richer insights, faster, and with less manual effort.
Student: “People pick on me sometimes.”
AI follow-up: “Can you tell me what usually happens when someone picks on you? How does it make you feel?”
How many follow-ups to ask? In most cases, 2–3 well-placed follow-up questions are enough to collect meaningful context. Specific lets you set maximum follow-up depth or skip to the next question once you’ve collected what you need. This customizability keeps the survey focused and kid-friendly.
This makes it a conversational survey. Follow-ups transform surveys into conversations; kids feel heard, answers are clearer, and the whole process feels more supportive.
AI survey response analysis, open-text answers, qualitative feedback. Even with lots of open-ended responses, it’s easy to analyze student feedback using AI nowadays—see our guide on how to analyze responses from an elementary school student bullying survey for details. AI-driven survey analysis distills themes and patterns from unstructured responses, letting you quickly spot what matters most.
These sorts of automated follow-ups are new for most people—give Specific’s survey generator a try and experience how natural conversational surveys can be.
How to compose prompts for AI (like ChatGPT) to generate better survey questions
If you want to use AI tools for crafting your own questions, here’s how to get results you’ll actually use.
A simple prompt to get started:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for elementary school student survey about bullying.
But AI always delivers better results when you give more context. Example:
I'm a school counselor creating a survey for grades 3–6. Our goal is to understand both traditional bullying and cyberbullying, how students respond, and what support they need. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for elementary school students about bullying, focused on these areas.
Once you have a list of questions, try this prompt:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Then, choose a category you want to explore further, and prompt the AI:
Generate 10 questions for categories “emotional impact of bullying,” “reporting and support,” and “cyberbullying experiences.”
This method makes surveys more thoughtful and tailored—saving time and brainpower.
What is a conversational survey, and why use AI survey generation?
A conversational survey is like a friendly chat, not a test or a form. Instead of static questions on a page, students interact through back-and-forth messages—just like texting. The AI asks questions, listens, follows up if needed, and adapts its next question based on what the student says. This leads to better data, higher engagement, and deeper honesty—especially important for touchy topics like bullying.
Let’s see how this stacks up:
Manual survey creation | AI-generated survey with Specific |
|---|---|
Brainstorm every question yourself | The AI suggests questions, best practices, and follow-up logic in seconds |
Hard to adapt on the fly | Edits are one chat message away; use AI survey editor for updates instantly |
No real-time follow-ups | AI asks clarifying/follow-up questions based on the student’s reply in real time |
Manual analysis of text responses | AI summarizes and categorizes responses; see AI survey response analysis for details |
Why use AI for elementary school student surveys? AI survey generation takes minutes, not hours—giving you expert-level questions, built-in follow-ups, and instant analytics. With so many students experiencing bullying—nearly half report negative feelings about themselves or their schoolwork as a result [7]—we need tools that collect honest, actionable feedback at scale.
Specific’s conversational surveys deliver a best-in-class, chat-style user experience. This makes the whole process smoother, friendlier, and much more engaging for both teachers and young respondents. Curious about setup? Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create an elementary school student bullying survey using Specific.
See this bullying survey example now
Start a bullying survey for elementary students and gather real, honest feedback in minutes. Specific makes the experience conversational, adaptive, and powerful for understanding what kids truly need.