THE NUMBER of children in the Republic who are being bullied at school is rising, according to new research published yesterday.
The latest Health Behaviour in School-aged Children report (HBSC), which is carried out every four years, indicates that the percentage of 11-year-olds who reported being bullied at school at least twice in the past couple of months has increased from 4 per cent, when the last study was done in 2002, to almost 10 per cent in 2006.
It also shows the percentage of 13-year-olds reporting a similar type of bullying has increased from 5 per cent to 8.5 per cent over the same period.
Among 15-year-olds the increase recorded was some 2 per cent, with reported levels rising from 6 per cent in 2002 to 8 per cent in 2006.
The report, which looked at the behaviour of children in 41 countries across Europe and North America, indicates that while rates of bullying may be rising in the Republic, they are still much lower here than in many other countries. It notes that rates of bullying among 11-year-olds are higher in about 30 other countries, with rates worst in countries like Turkey, Lithuania, Estonia and Greenland. They are also worse in the UK than in Ireland.
The report says young people who are being bullied become increasingly less able to defend themselves.
“Victims of bullying experience a range of problems such as depression and anxiety and, in extreme cases, suicide,” the report says.
It adds that in general across all countries studied boys are more likely to report being bullied than girls.
Meanwhile, when Irish children were asked if they were bullied at school at least once in the past couple of months, the rates were higher than those reporting being bullied at least twice.
Some 28 per cent of the 11-year-olds, 27 per cent of 13-year-olds and 23 per cent of 15-year-olds in the Republic said they had been bullied at school at least once in the past couple of months.