News from Research on Bullying

 

Cyber Bullying

This is very comprehensive and well-researched article on the causes and solutions to this serious and insidious form of bullying.
Cyberbullying

 

Survey: Half of High Schoolers Report Bullying or Teasing Someone
“Ethics of American Youth Survey”, Josephson Institute of Ethics

Half of U.S. high schoolers say they have bullied or teased someone at least once in the past year, a new survey finds. The study also found that nearly half say they have been bullied during that time.  The study surveyed 43,321 teens ages 15 to 18, from 78 public and 22 private schools. It found 50 percent had "bullied, teased or taunted someone at least once," and 47 percent had been "bullied, teased or taunted in a way that seriously upset me at least once."  The survey asked about bullying in the past 12 months:

• 52% of students have hit someone in anger.
• 28% (37% of boys, 19% of girls) say it's OK to hit or threaten a person who angers them.

"There's a tremendous amount of anger out there," Michael Josephson says (Founder of the Institute of Ethics)

 

Cyberbullying Teens and Victims More Likely to Have Psychiatric Troubles
Archives of General Psychiatry, July 2010

Teens who cyberbully others through the Internet or cell phones are more likely to have both physical and psychiatric problems, and their victims are at heightened risk for behavioral difficulties, a new study finds. Researchers collected data on 2,215 Finnish teens 13 to 16 years old. The survey found that teens who were victims of cyberbullying were more likely to come from broken homes and have emotional, concentration and behavior problems. In addition, they were prone to headaches, abdominal pain, sleeping problems and not feeling safe at school, the researchers found. Cyberbullies were also more prone to suffer from emotional and behavior problems, according to the survey.

 

Bullying And Being Bullied Linked To Suicide In Children
International Journal of Adolescent Medical Health; July 2008
Being a victim or perpetrator of school bullying, the most common type of school violence, has been frequently associated with a broad spectrum of behavioral, emotional, and social problems.  Researchers at Yale School of Medicine reviewed 13 international studies and found signs of an apparent connection between bullying, being bullied. and suicide in children.  Suicide is third leading cause of mortality in children and adolescents.

Five reported that bullying victims were two to nine times more likely to report suicidal thoughts than other children were. "The perpetrators who are the bullies also have an increased risk for suicidal behaviors," Kim said. "When we see kids who are targets of bullying, we should ask them if they're thinking about hurting themselves," she said.

According to international studies, bullying is common and affects anywhere from 9 percent to 54 percent of children. In the United States, many have blamed bullying for spurring acts of violence, including the Columbine High School massacre.

 

Bullying Tied to Sleep Problems
Sleep Medicine, June 2011

Children who are aggressive and disruptive in class are more likely to have sleep-disordered breathing than well-behaved children, according to new research. Conduct problems, parent-reported bullying, and school disciplinary problems were all associated with higher scores on a measure of sleep-related breathing disorders, according to researchers. The study collected data from parents on each child’s sleep habits and asked both parents and teachers to assess behavioral concerns. The findings suggest that bullying may be prevented by paying attention to some of the unique health issues associated with aggressive behavior.

 

Bullying Linked to Violence at Home
US Center for Disease Control April 2011

Bullying is pervasive among middle school and high school students in Massachusetts and may be linked to family violence, a new study finds. In a survey of 5,807 middle-school and high-school students from almost 138 Massachusetts public schools, researchers found that those involved in bullying in any way are more likely to contemplate suicide and engage in self-harm compared to other students. Those involved in bullying were also more likely to have certain risk factors, including suffering abuse from a family member or witnessing violence at home, compared to people who were neither bullies nor victims.

 

Kids with ADHD more likely to bully
Linda Carroll, MSNBC  January 2008

When her 5-year-old son showed up at the door with a black eye and a bloody cut on his head, Brooke Fike knew it was time to take on the bullies. For weeks, several boys at school had been swinging their backpacks into her son's head. One day they dumped a carton of milk over him during lunch.

As Fike tried to remedy the problem, she realized that the bullies seemed to be the kids in class who couldn’t sit still and listen. They didn’t do their homework. They were almost constantly in motion... symptoms of ADHD.

A new study shows that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are almost four times as likely as others to be bullies. And, in an intriguing corollary, the children with ADHD symptoms were almost 10 times as likely as others to have been regular targets of bullies prior to the onset of those symptoms, according to the report in the Journal Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology.

According to study co-author Dr. Anders Hjern, a professor in pediatric epidemiology at the University of Uppsala in Stockholm, "These kids might be making life miserable for their fellow students. Or it might turn out that the attention problems they’re exhibiting could be related to the stress of being bullied."

"You can't learn if you're being bullied, if every day you're frightened of how you're going to be treated," says William Pollack, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Unfortunately, treating ADHD won't remedy the bullying because drugs for the condition impact a child's ability to focus but not the aggression that could lead to bullying, says Kazdin, a professor of psychology and child psychiatry and director of the Parenting Center and Child Conduct Clinic at Yale University, and president of the American Psychological Association.

Battling bullying

“This is a huge problem in the schools,” says Dr. Joyce Nolan Harrison, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.  Studies show it's particularly common in grades 6 through 10, when as many as 30 percent of students report they've had moderate or frequent involvement in bullying, she says.

“Bullies are like the lion looking for a deer that’s left the herd,” says Patrick Tolan, director of the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois. “They try to single out the weakest kid. The best way to stop this is to work on increasing inclusion by helping the bullied kids with social skills.”

Another strategy that can work: Help the bullied kids find each other. “If there are a bunch of them together, they can stand the bully down,” Pollack says. “They don’t have to beat the bully up. They just have to say, ‘Why are you treating my friend this way?’ The bully will often move on.”

Parental role

Parents need to take matters into their own hands. To do this, you’ll need to enlist the help of all the other parents of bullied children, says Pollack. “Parents have to work as a group,” he explains. “One parent is a pain in the [butt]. A group of parents can be an educational experience for school authorities.”

 

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