One out of Five Middle School Children are Bullied Every Year!

One out of five middle school children are bullied every year. And both victims of bullying and those who bully either are victims of domestic violence or are witnesses to domestic violence.  No surprise. This was all reported and more according to The CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] who released its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report last week, April 22, 2011 regarding Bullying among Middle School and High School Students.  The Report surveyed about 6000 public MS and HS students in the State of Massachusetts.
 The Students were asked two questions relating to bullying: whether they were a bully or a victim of bullying.  The survey asked questions relating to family violence encounters, obesity,suicidal thoughts, drug and alcohol use and more. The survey resulted in students who were neither bullies or victims of bullying, students who were just bullies, students who were just victims of bullying and students who were both victim and bully.

In summary the report states that a greater percentage of middles school students are bullied then high school students.  Females were more likely to be bullied then male students however males were more likely to be  bullies then female students. Compared with students who were neither bullies nor bullying victims, both middle and high school bully/ victims were more than three times likely to report seriously considering suicide. Domestic Violence also plays a part in those who are victims of bullying where those victims are more likely to be physically hurt by a family member or witness violence in their family.

When it comes to alcohol, 32% of middle school students who are bullied have used alcohol in the past 30 days where victims of bullying are in the range of 22.7%. For more information see the MMWR/CDC Website.Center for Disease Control

Information Courtesy of CDC
Picture Courtesy of Smarts