By Jaana Juvonen, Hannah L. Schacter, JAMA Pediatrics, February 3, 2020
With increased awareness of the association of being bullied and adverse well-being, health care clinicians are well positioned to identify warning signs among young patients. Elevated levels of anxiety or depression, frequent headaches or stomachaches, as well as repeated tardiness and school absences are some of the most typical signs of being bullied.
One in every 5 youth face repeated bullying at school in the United States. Because of the prevalence and potentially devastating consequences of mistreatment by peers, bullying is considered a public health problem. The good news is that school-based antibullying programs can successfully decrease the number of youth engaging in and experiencing bullying .
Although we can celebrate the success of primary prevention programs in decreasing the number of children who are repeatedly bullied in school, bullying never totally ceases. Even in the safest of schools, some children are still bullied. This fact is critical inasmuch as recent findings show that when prevention programs reduce the number of youth engaging in and experiencing bullying, the few youth who remain bullied feel worse than before. That is, despite helping most students, safer schools can actually hurt those who are bullied. This paradoxical effect is similar to a water airdrop severely damaging a house with a small fire in a burning neighborhood when the drop saves the other houses.
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