Global survey reveals the young people most likely to be bullied
One of the world’s largest bullying surveys has identified which young people are most likely to be targeted – and found one group of young girls face the highest risk.
Young girls with little family support, low grades, extended social media use and high peer group pressure are most at risk of being bullied, one of the world’s biggest surveys of young children has found.
A panel of international authors reviewed 47 research papers on bullying, reflecting the experiences of more than 300,000 young people from around the world, including those in Australia.
The study, led by Dr Kahsu Gebrekidan from the University of Oulu in Finland, found those least likely to be bullied had good family support, healthy friendships, positive feelings at school and good academic achievement.
“High self-esteem and emotional management, and positive peer interaction were found to be protective factors against bullying,” Dr Gebrekidan said.
“Within the family context, factors such as high socio-economic status, a nurturing home environment, active parental engagement, guidance in technology use, supervision and monitoring, authoritative parenting style, and warm, communicative relationships were all associated with reduced victimisation.”
Dr Gebrekidan, who is also a research fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research in Australia, said those at higher risk of bullying spent more time on social media, were younger, had weaker friendships and less family support.
“In addition, belonging to a sexual minority and coming from a different cultural background were risk factors for bullying victimisation,” Dr Gebrekidan said.
“Obesity, time spent on social media or internet addiction, substance use and smoking, experience of violence, higher impulsivity, moral disengagement and poor anger management were among the individual risk factors.”
Other factors that put children more at risk of being bullied online were problematic internet usage, internet addiction, anger, aggression and hostility.
The study also found boys were more likely than girls to be traditional bullying perpetrators.
The findings come weeks ahead of a world-first Australian social media ban designed to protect children from the harms associated with online platforms.
The review also found anti-bullying programs protected children from the risk of bullying.
The federal government brought in national bullying guidelines for all schools, honouring the dying wish of Charlotte O’Brien, who at age 12 ended her life after relentless bullying.
In a final suicide note to her parents, she asked them to raise awareness about the social scourge.
The guidelines followed a campaign from The Sunday Telegraph featuring Charlotte’s parents. Education Minister Jason Clare spoke about Charlotte when announcing the changes: “What we can do is still listen to her and what she said to us – she asked us to act,” he said.
Under the $10m anti-bullying plan, Australian schools will need to act on a bullying complaint within two days of a reported incident and have a trauma-informed response.
A World Health Organisation study showed one in three adolescents aged 12 to 17 are either traditional or cyberbullying victims.
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Originally published as Global survey reveals the young people most likely to be bullied
