Three students bullied in each Dutch classroom
On average three children in each class of 27 students are being bullied. That is almost 11 percent of young people in high school. Five percent of them particularly mention cyber-bullying, according to a national survey done by the 25 regional health services (GGD's) and national health service RIVM, ANP reports.
The survey asked 100 thousand young people about their lifestyle and health, particularly focusing on bullying.
The study also revealed that boys are bullies twice as often as girls, but boys and girls are equally often the victim of bullying. Girls are more often the victims of cyber-bullying. Younger students are more often being bullied, while older students are more likely to be the bullies.
The extent to which young people are bullied seem to be related to how resilient they are, whether they have emotional problems and whether they are healthy, according to the researchers. Resilient students are three times less likely to be bullied.
According to Klaas Hiemstra, project leader of Center School and Safety, bullying mainly occurs between the ages of 10 and 14 years. Between these ages children are working out their identity and are finding out what effect they can have on others, he said to newspaper Trouw.
Hiemstra thinks that with bullying, it is particularly important for kids to have somewhere to go to talk about the problem. A lack of attention makes bullying worse. "An occasional conversation never helps. You as school need to actually spend the whole day on it. Communicate that you want to interact respectfully. That bullying will not be tolerated. It is important that teachers consult each other and know what happens in the hallways and outside school. Bullied students still feel the safest in class."