Bullying

• -One out of every five (20.2%) students report being bullied. (2)

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• 41% of students who reported being bullied at school indicated that they think the bullying would happen again (2)

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• The reasons for being bullied reported most often by students include physical appearance, race/ethnicity, gender, disability, religion, sexual orientation. (2)

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• 23% of African-American students, 23% of Caucasian students, 16% of Hispanic students, and 7% of Asian students report being bullied at school (2)

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• Race-related bullying is significantly associated with negative emotional and physical health effects (3)

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• 70.1% of LGBTQ students were verbally bullied (e.g., called names, threatened) in the past year because of their sexual orientation and 59.1% because of their gender expression, and 53.2% based on gender (4)

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• 28.9% of LGBTQ students were physically bullied (e.g., pushed, shoved) in the past year because of their sexual orientation and 24.4% because of their gender expression, and 22.8% based on gender (4)

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• 48.7% of LGBTQ students experienced cyberbullying in the past year (4)

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• -34.8% of LGBTQ students missed at least one entire day at school in the past month because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable, and 10.5% missed four or more days in the past month (4)

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• Students with specific learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, emotional and behavior disorders, other health impairments, and speech or language impairments report greater rates of victimization than their peers without disabilities longitudinally and their victimization remains consistent over time (5)

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• Researchers discovered that students with disabilities were more worried about school safety and being injured or harassed by other peers compared to students without a disability (6)

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• -One in five (20.9%) tweens (9 to 12 years old) has been cyberbullied, cyberbullied others, or seen cyberbullying. (7)

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• The percentages of individuals who have experienced cyberbullying at some point in their lifetimes have more than doubled (18% to 37%) from 2007-2019 (7)

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• 49.8% of tweens (9 to 12 years old) said they experienced bullying at school and 14.5% of tweens shared they experienced bullying online. (7)

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• Tweens who were cyberbullied shared that it negatively impacted their feelings about themselves (69.1%), their friendships (31.9%), their physical health (13.1%), and their schoolwork (6.5%) (7)

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• Students who experience bullying are at increased risk for depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, lower academic achievement, and dropping out of school. (8)

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• Students need not be the targets of bullying to experience negative outcomes. Observing bullying is associated with adverse mental health outcomes (9)

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• Bullied students indicate that bullying has a negative effect on how they feel about themselves (27%), their relationships with friends and family (19%), their school work (19%), and physical health (14%).  (2)

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• Students who experience bullying are twice as likely as non-bullied peers to experience negative health effects such as headaches and stomachaches. (10)

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• Youth who self-blame and conclude they deserved to be bullied are more likely to face negative outcomes, such as depression, prolonged victimization, and maladjustment. (11)

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• There is a strong association between bullying and suicide-related behaviors, but this relationship is often mediated by other factors, including depression, violent behavior, and substance abuse (12)

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• Students who report frequently bullying others and students who report being frequently bullied are at increased risk for suicide-related behavior (13)

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• A meta-analysis found that students facing peer victimization are 2.2 times more likely to have suicide ideation and 2.6 times more likely to attempt suicide than students not facing victimization (14)