Two decades ago, three children killed themselves. The youngest was only 10 years old. All three had apparently been driven to despair--at least in part--by the persecution they'd endured at their schools.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, a whole country dwelt on a nasty reality: that children, be it through cruel intent or mindless insensitivity, can make the lives of other children wretched.
The country also acted. It launched an anti-bullying campaign, providing funds to the world's foremost bullying expert to explore just how bad the problem was and how it might be improved. The government funded research to devise and test a bullying-prevention program. Today, the country is placing a proven anti-bullying program in all of its schools.
The country is Norway, but there's a growing sentiment that the U.S. should also get serious about school bullying, treating it as a harmful blight rather than shrugging it off as an inevitable rite of passage through childhood.
Researchers have determined that regular victims of bullying are more likely to develop anxiety and depression, to withdraw, even to become more aggressive. They're more likely to dislike, avoid and perform poorly in school. The National Education Assn. estimates that each day at least 160,000 students stay home from school out of fear of bullies.
Bullying also seems to cause harm in later life. A study tracking 900 Swedish boys found that by age 23, ex-victims had recovered in many ways: They no longer exhibited heightened stress and anxiety. But, compared with those who weren't bullied, they were more likely to have low self-esteem or suffer from depression.
And while kids who are picked on may be more anxious and self-doubting to begin with, researchers say it's pretty clear from the body of evidence--for both adults and kids--that bullying can cause or worsen such problems.
In their search for solutions, such researchers have amassed a surprising amount of knowledge about the nuts and bolts of bullying. They can tell you, as one Canadian study did, that a bully strikes every 7 1/2 minutes on the playground and that the average attack last 40 seconds; that teachers believe they intervene in 75% of bullying incidents--yet kids put that number at 20%; and that girl bullies and boy bullies tend to torment their victims in different yet equally painful ways.
