Bullying and victimization have been topics of concern for all of us who care for children. While numerous articles are written on this subject trying to identify risk factors that lead to bullying as well as ways to remedy it, it seems that the problem just doesn’t go away and perhaps is getting worse. To look at trends over the past decade in bullying, Waasdorp et al. (10.1542/peds.2016-2615) studied the prevalence of bullying between 2005 and 2014 using self-reported data by students in grades 4 to 12 who were enrolled in 109 schools in Maryland during that time period. The authors share with us ongoing trends in bullying and discover that there was significant improvement in 10 out of 13 indicators of bullying including cyberbullying. There is also good news in student “self-awareness” of bullying in that they self-report that their school environments are more sensitized to bullying prevention and are working hard to combat this problem. So what might be leading to this decrease in the prevalence of bullying?
Drs. Stephen Leff and Chris Feudtner who are part of the Violence Prevention Initiative at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (10.1542/peds.2017-0504) offer their input in an accompanying commentary that sheds light on what’s behind the improvements. Yet even with some positive trends showing a reduction in the prevalence of bullying and victimization, bullying continues to be a problem in this country given that we still do not want to see even one child bullied or victimized. To get a sense of what areas of bullying may be getting better, and how you might further focus your efforts on key aspects of this problem that could be better addressed than they are, take a tough look at this article and commentary and use it to continue to work with schools and community groups to insure that the trends in bullying for the next decade show an even better decline than those presented in this study. With your help and investment in addressing the problem of bullying, it can happen!
