Best questions for high school freshman student survey about bullying

Here are some of the best questions for a high school freshman student survey about bullying, plus practical tips on how to craft them. With Specific, you can build or generate an engaging survey in seconds.

Best open-ended questions for high school freshman student surveys about bullying

Open-ended questions let students freely share their experiences, uncovering the real issues behind bullying. These are essential when the goal is to surface rich, story-driven feedback or when you want to understand feelings, context, and specifics that multiple-choice options can't cover. Especially with bullying—where nuance matters—open questions help us reach deeper truths.

• What does “bullying” mean to you, and what are some examples you’ve seen at school?

• Can you describe a time when you or someone you know felt bullied since starting high school?

• How did that experience make you feel, both during and after it happened?

• If you witnessed bullying at school, what did you do? How did others react?

• What do you think are the main reasons people bully others at your school?

• Have you ever talked to someone at school about a bullying experience? If yes, who?

• What do you wish teachers or staff would do differently to help students who are bullied?

• If you could change one thing to make your school a safer place, what would it be?

• How do you think bullying affects people’s ability to succeed at school?

• What would make you feel more comfortable reporting bullying if you saw or experienced it?

In Florida alone, 38.2% of high school freshmen reported experiencing bullying, more than any other grade level; letting students describe these incidents in their own words sheds light on patterns and pain points schools must address. [3]

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for high school freshman student bullying surveys

Single-select multiple-choice questions work beautifully for quantifying trends or getting students talking, especially when respondents might feel unsure where to start. Sometimes it’s just easier to choose an option, breaking the ice for deeper reflection. After a single-select, you can dig deeper with follow-ups—unlocking plenty of insights.

Question: How often have you experienced or witnessed bullying at school this year?

• Never

• Once or twice

• A few times

• Every week

Question: Who do you feel most comfortable talking to if you experience bullying?

• Parent/guardian

• Friend

• Teacher or school staff

• I wouldn't talk to anyone

• Other

Question: What type of bullying have you seen or experienced most often?

• Physical (e.g., hitting, pushing)

• Verbal (e.g., teasing, insults)

• Social (e.g., exclusion, spreading rumors)

• Online/cyberbullying

When to follow up with “why?” It’s smart to follow up when you want students to explain their choice, like if they say they “wouldn’t talk to anyone.” You might ask, “Can you share why you wouldn’t talk to anyone about being bullied?” This can reveal barriers or fears—crucial info for designing better support systems.

When and why to add the “Other” choice? Always include “Other” when you think students might have a different answer than the ones you provided. If a student picks “Other” and explains, you uncover experiences you didn’t even think to ask about in the first place—some of the best insights come from these details.

NPS-style question: Using a net promoter score for bullying surveys

NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a standard way of measuring loyalty, but it also adapts to school climate surveys—helping quantify how safe students feel or how likely they are to recommend their school as a safe place. For high school freshmen, asking, “On a scale of 0–10, how likely are you to recommend this school to a friend because it feels safe from bullying?” can uncover overall sentiment while opening doors for emotional follow-up questions. The NPS approach lets schools track improvements over time or compare results by grade—especially helpful since freshmen report bullying at higher rates than older students. [3] Create an NPS bullying survey instantly using Specific.

The power of follow-up questions

Automatic, AI-powered probing makes all the difference. As covered in our explainer on automated follow-up questions, a single answer rarely paints the full picture—especially in sensitive topics like bullying. When a student says something unclear or surprising, a smart follow-up gets at the why or how for a richer, more nuanced understanding. Specific braves this with baseline AI that listens, interprets, and digs deeper—mimicking an expert interviewer but at scale and speed that’s otherwise impossible.

• Freshman student: “Sometimes people make fun of me in the hallway.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you share more about what was said? Did anyone step in or help?”

How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, two or three follow-ups strike the right balance. Go deep enough to clarify, but offer a way to continue or skip to the next question in case the respondent feels ready to move on. Specific lets you tailor this setting with ease.

This makes it a conversational survey—it’s a chat, not a checklist. Students respond naturally, which means better, more honest answers.

AI-powered analysis is straightforward—even if you collect long, rambling stories, you don’t need to read every word. With AI, you can chat with your survey data or see summaries and key themes at a glance. Our overview on how to analyze responses explains how this works in practice.

These automated follow-up questions open up a new frontier—try generating a survey and experience just how much more insight you can surface.

Crafting the best prompt for ChatGPT and AI survey generators

If you want an AI to design your survey, start simple: ask for exactly what you need. Here’s a great first prompt:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for High School Freshman Student survey about Bullying.

But don’t stop there. The more context you give, the better your results will be. Try this expanded prompt:

I’m a school counselor designing a survey for high school freshmen about bullying. I care about emotional impact, school policies, bystander behavior, and barriers to reporting. Suggest 10 open-ended questions.

Once you have questions, get organized. Ask the AI to group them for you:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Now, focus where it matters. Choose a category (like “Barriers to reporting,” “Bystander reactions,” or “Emotional impact”), and go deeper:

Generate 10 questions for categories Emotional Impact and Bystander Response.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey feels like a one-on-one chat—not a stuffy form. Instead of forcing students to read through dry checkboxes, a conversational AI interview adapts, listens, and probes like a real person. Specific’s AI survey generator pulls all these threads together: it builds the content, sets smart follow-up logic, and helps make sure students open up (and stick with it). This boost in engagement delivers a higher response rate and more genuine data, every time.

Why use AI for high school freshman student surveys? Because students open up more in conversation, and AI makes it easy to tailor the questions, summarize results, and dig deep—no research experience needed. Plus, you save hours otherwise spent wrestling with forms or sifting through pages of responses. See how easy it is in our practical how-to guide on creating surveys for high school freshmen!

Specific is relentlessly focused on best-in-class survey experiences—chat-like, smooth, and honest. The process is rewarding on both sides—for the survey creators and for the freshman students who finally have a voice.

See this bullying survey example now

Don’t miss your chance to capture the full story—create your own survey using conversational AI and get deeper, more actionable insights into bullying among high school freshmen.