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School bullying among adolescents in the United States: Physical, verbal, relational, and cyber
This National Institutes of Health study (Journal of Adolescent Health. June 11, 2009, e-pub ahead of print), analyzed data from the World Health Organization's (WHO) 2005/2006 survey of human behavior in school-aged children.
The results show that plenty of students still suffer from bullying, only these days some aggressors operate electronically. 20.8 percent of the WHO survey respondents reported being perpetrators or victims of physical bullying in the past two months; 53.6 percent were victims of verbal bullying; 51.4 percent were victims of relational bullying, which involves social exclusion; and 13.6 percent were victims of cyber bullying.
Cyber bullying - bullying through a computer or other communication device - is still a small phenomenon. Researchers found that 8 percent of students had received harassing computer pictures or messages, and 6 percent were bullied by cell phone. More boys were cyber bullies; more girls were cyber victims.
Verbal bullying was the most prevalent of the four major forms of bullying.
The researchers concluded that good parental support helps children avoid abusive behavior: kids who come from loving homes and feel good about themselves are less likely to want to harass someone and are less likely to appear weak to potential bullies.
Date Posted: 7/14/2009
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The findings and conclusions in these newsletter materials are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Children's Safety Network.