The Effects of Bullying

According to a 2004 study in the Journal of Pediatrics, one in seven Canadian children between the ages of 11 and 16 have been bullied. But a study by the University of Guelph, in their Psychology department, found that 50 per cent of local school children report being bullied within the previous month. Astonishingly, 45 percent of the child respondents in the same poll do not feel safe when they go to school.

Cyberspace makes the problem even bigger by making bullying easier and less likely to be reported. A study by the University of Toronto showed that less than 50 percent of cyberbullying is reported and that one in four school students had been bullied online. 70 percent of sexual harassment incidents occurred online. The Quebec English School Boards Association conducted a survey and found "17 percent of respondents had pretended to be someone else in order to 'act mean to people and not get into trouble.'"

Bullying and its effects

Bullying has numerous negative effects on everyone involved. The very least bullying can make children feel lonely, isolated and unsafe, can make them sick and it "can have long-term physical and psychological consequences." In The Social Outcast, a 2005 study of bullying, the authors agree that bullying can lead to depression, anxiety, low self esteem and susceptibility to illness.

Bullying can kill, in fact. In 2002, the US Secret Service concluded that many school shootings were rooted in bullying. Bullying results in suicide all too often, as well, as seems obvious. This has been discussed several times on ourkids.net, in articles or posts profiling parents of bullied children in Canada and the bullycide epidemic in late 2010.