This is news that we could use more of: US 2-to-17-year-olds have been exposed to decreasing sexual victimization and violence, including bullying. Examining “50 types of violence that kids might witness or experience themselves,” researchers at the University of New Hampshire and University of the South found “significant declines in kids’ exposure to 27 types of violence and no significant increases,” LiveScience.com reports, citing research published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. They looked at data gathered between 2003 and ’11, the latest figures available. Lead author David Finkelhor told LiveScience he was struck “to see that the economic crisis did not seem to affect the violence rates,” since economic troubles typically tend to increase conflict.
One of the academic studies the authors looked at and just published in the Journal of Public Health found that “American teens are much less likely to engage in bullying than they were a decade ago,” Fox News in Birmingham, Ala. reported. “Surveys completed by middle school and high school students between 1998 and 2010 suggest that instances of both verbal and physical bullying dropped by roughly half…. Declines in bullying perpetration and victimization were greater for boys than for girls.”
Related links
- An example of how bullying is more typically represented
- You probably noticed that the above research referred only to offline bullying and victimization. As for cyberbullying, see this about findings by the Cyberbullying Research Center (and much more at their site).
- “Stop using the word ‘bullying’ in school, researchers say”
- “‘Bullying’ & ‘peer victimization’: Clearer terms, better communication”
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