Here are some of the best questions for a Middle School Student survey about bullying, plus smart tips on crafting your own. With Specific, you can build a survey like this in seconds—it’s faster, richer, and more insightful thanks to AI-powered design.
The best open-ended questions for a middle school student survey about bullying
Open-ended questions invite honest, detailed thoughts, letting students express themselves in their own words. They're ideal when you want real stories, nuanced opinions, or unexpected insights—not just a box checked. Here are 10 of our favorite open-ended questions for a bullying survey aimed at middle schoolers:
Can you describe a time when you saw or experienced bullying at school?
What types of bullying do you think happen most often at our school?
How do you think bullying makes students feel, whether they’re directly involved or just see it happen?
Why do you think some students bully others?
If you saw someone being bullied, what would you want to do?
What has helped you (or someone you know) deal with bullying?
How comfortable do you feel talking with teachers or staff about bullying?
What could the school do to better prevent or address bullying?
If you could change one thing to make students feel safer, what would it be?
Is there anything else you want adults at school to know about bullying?
Open-ended questions encourage depth and candidness—especially since 28% of U.S. students in grades 6–12 report being bullied according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Understanding students’ perspectives offers crucial context that multiple-choice questions can’t always reveal. [1]
The best single-select multiple-choice questions for a bullying survey
Single-select multiple-choice questions work best when you need easy-to-analyze data or want to lower the bar for students to start sharing. Sometimes, it’s easier (and less intimidating) for students to click an option—they don’t have to worry about wording or spelling, and you get structured, quantifiable data to spot trends quickly. They’re also a great conversation starter: you can always add a follow-up to dig deeper if needed.
Question: Have you ever witnessed bullying at school?
Yes, many times
Yes, once or twice
No, never
I'm not sure
Question: What type of bullying do you think is most common at our school?
Verbal (teasing, name-calling)
Physical (hitting, pushing)
Social (excluding, spreading rumors)
Online/Cyberbullying
Other
Question: How safe do you feel at school?
Very safe
Somewhat safe
Not very safe
Not safe at all
When to follow up with “why?” Adding a follow-up “why?” question is powerful when a student picks something with deeper context, or to understand reasoning—like if someone selects “Not very safe,” you can ask, “Why do you feel this way?” to uncover specific situations or feelings.
When and why to add the “Other” choice? Always include “Other” if you suspect students might have different answers than your list. Follow-up questions after “Other” lead to discoveries you didn’t even realize were relevant—like new types of bullying or specific incidents unique to your school community.
NPS question for a bullying survey: is it a fit?
NPS (Net Promoter Score) questions are a staple in feedback surveys—you ask, “On a scale of 0–10, how likely are you to recommend this school as a safe place to your friends?” This format works well for bullying surveys too, measuring the overall sense of school safety in a way that’s easy to benchmark and track over time.
Why include it? NPS makes results clear and actionable, and you get quick feedback trends. With bullying so tightly tied to the feeling of safety (and knowing that students climbing the social ladder are 25% more likely to be targeted [2]), tracking changes in NPS over time can show if your interventions are actually working. You can generate a bullying-focused NPS survey for middle school students with a click.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are a game changer for surfacing clear, actionable feedback. Instead of stopping at a vague answer, Specific’s automated follow-ups drill down for detail—fast. By combining AI with smart context, our approach (explained in our AI follow-up questions feature article) means you can clarify, probe, and understand without extra effort.
Middle school student: “Sometimes I don’t feel safe in the hallways.”
AI follow-up: “Can you share what makes you feel unsafe in the hallways? Are there certain times or places when this happens?”
If you skip follow-ups, you risk missing key context—was it a one-time fight, a pattern, or something systemic?
How many followups to ask? In most bullying surveys, 2–3 follow-up questions are enough to uncover what you need, but you should always give students an option to skip if they’re uncomfortable or you’ve gathered what you need. We let you control these settings inside Specific.
This makes it a conversational survey: By exploring answers conversationally, you create a safe, responsive environment where students feel listened to—not interrogated or ignored.
Easy AI analysis, even with lots of text—thanks to advanced tools like our AI survey response analysis, it's simple to analyze large volumes of free-form feedback, letting you pull patterns and insights from open-text responses without manual coding. See our guide to analyzing middle school bullying survey results for step-by-step AI workflow.
These automated follow-ups make surveys smarter and faster—try generating your own survey to see just how effective the experience can be.
How to prompt ChatGPT to write great survey questions about bullying
Don’t want to brainstorm alone? Let AI help: just prompt ChatGPT to start with ideas and get targeted question lists for your student survey about bullying. Begin simply—
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Middle School Student survey about Bullying.
But—AI always does better when you give it more detail. For a stronger result, try adding the mission or background:
Our middle school wants to understand bullying among students. Could you suggest 10 open-ended questions that let students feel heard and safe when sharing their experiences and ideas for change?
After you get your question list: organize and refine! Ask the AI—
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Once you see the categories, pick your focus and go deeper:
Generate 10 questions for the category “Support systems for students who experience bullying.”
What is a conversational survey (and why it changes everything)
Conversational surveys, like those you create with Specific, feel like a chat—not a form. Instead of blasting through checkboxes, the survey adapts in real time, asks you to clarify, probes deeper, and responds naturally to what’s shared. Why does that matter? It puts students at ease, encourages more genuine answers, and helps you get to the heart of the matter—especially in sensitive topics like bullying.
Traditional/manual survey creation is slow, rigid, and (let’s be honest) a little boring. You have to plan it out, code your logic if you want follow-ups, and analyze messy text with endless copy-paste. Conversational AI survey generators like Specific deliver dynamic, engaging, mobile-ready surveys with just a prompt—plus real-time follow-ups and AI-powered summaries for fast actionable insights.
Manual Surveys | AI-Generated Surveys (Conversational) |
|---|---|
Form with fixed questions | Chat-like, follows up on the fly |
No context-aware probing | Dynamic, tailored follow-ups |
Manual analysis of responses | Instant AI analysis and summaries |
Hard to edit or iterate | Update via chat prompts instantly |
Why use AI for Middle School Student surveys? Bullying is nuanced—a checkbox can’t capture how it feels. Conversational AI surveys meet students where they are, adapt to their responses, and give adults the insights they actually need to make change. When bystanders intervene, bullying stops within 10 seconds 57% of the time [3]—the right survey helps you discover what actually makes the difference.
For a hands-on guide, check out our article on how to create a bullying survey for middle schoolers with AI. We make sure you get a best-in-class user experience—fast, conversational, and respectful—so students and stakeholders actually engage.
See this bullying survey example now
Try a conversational bullying survey today—unlock deeper feedback and real-world solutions in every student’s voice. See how easy it is to go from prompt to powerful insights with our AI-powered conversational surveys.