Anxiety Forum

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Bullying is slowly being acknowledged as an abnormal behavior and there has been some success in some countries in trying to address and stop this behavior.

Its been reported in 2004 in a federally funded study that bullies AND their victims had "more health problems and poorer emotional and social adjustment than their peers."

Also, certain violent acts such as school shootings, have been linked to bullying. The infamous Columbine High School shootings of 2004 involved two students who had been bullied. 22 states now have anti-bullying laws due to a study by the US Secret Service which found bullying had played a major role in some school shootings.

Greater than 16 percent of US schoolchildren had reported being bullied in a 2001 report, and more than a quarter of all children are estimated to be involved in some way (victim or perpetrator).

Unfortunately, parents and much of society don't recognize bullying as a problem. Some parents even encourage it or believe it can toughen people up, rather than recognize it as a possible mental health issue which causes people to act out in such ways.

If parents and school teachers and counselors take an active role in dealing with this behavior, it may finally be a controllable and 'curable' problem.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/22/AR2005082201162.html?referrer=emailarticle


A helpful link to go to in search of help on bullying:

Bully Online:
http://www.bullyonline.org/