These are the Teens and Tweens Most Liable to Be Bullied, Study Finds
America’s got a bully problem—and, by many accounts, both local and national, it’s getting worse.
Now a new study out of Florida Atlantic University has revealed which adolescents age 12 to 17 are most prone to being bullied, and the results are, well, depressing.
Those who were “overweight, struggled to make friends, were born outside the U.S., or faced mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, ADD/ADHD or learning disabilities were at greater risk of involvement in bullying,” the findings show—meaning they were more apt to not only be victims, but perpetrators or both.
“The results also reveal a cyclical pattern,” the researchers noted, “in which being bullied can increase the likelihood of bullying others.”
Bullying, according to the nonprofit National Bullying Prevention Center of PACER (Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights) is when someone is “hurt by unwanted words or actions and has a hard time stopping what is happening to them because they do not have the same power as the person or group doing the bullying.”
Cyberbullying is using technology including email, texts, and social media to do that sort of harm. One out of every five students report being bullied, according to the nonprofit’s statistics.
The study, which examined data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s National Survey of Children’s Health and was published in the journal Child Psychiatry & Human Development, called out one of the groups in particular for high rates of bullying or being bullied: overweight and obese teens.
The Obesity Action Coalition nonprofit reports that over 30% of girls and 24% of boys with extra weight experience daily bullying and harassment; only a handful of states (Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and California), meanwhile, have laws protecting students against weight-based bullying.
Of the 37,425 adolescents surveyed (between 2022 and 2023), 36.7% (13,724) reported being bullied in the past year, with 24.7% experiencing bullying once or twice, 6.4% monthly, 3.4% weekly, and 2.1% nearly every day. And 13.2% (4,936) of those surveyed reported bullying others.
“Our findings underscore the urgent need for evidence-based interventions to address bullying and its impact on adolescents’ mental, physical and social well-being,” Lea Sacca, senior study author and an assistant professor of population health in the Schmidt College of Medicine, said in a news release.
“Effective strategies involve shaping student attitudes, training school staff to respond to bullying, and engaging caregivers,” she added. “Schools that implement these approaches have seen meaningful reductions in bullying and improvements in student mental health, offering lasting support to those most at risk.”
Also playing important roles in prevention, she said, are:
- Culturally accessible strategies that involve parents, with meetings offered at flexible times
- Strong school policies—and while there are no federal anti-bullying laws, the U.S. Department of Education has comprised a list of 16 recommended components for state laws. Still, those have only been fully adopted by a few states, “highlighting the need for stronger, more consistent policies.”
Beyond that, stresses Jaime Hamilton, a communications professor who offers bully-prevention advice to her 312,000 TikTok followers, it’s important for parents to make sure the school’s bully policy is “there to support your child.”
To do that, she urges parents to pose direct questions to administrators, like “How is the school going to ensure my child’s safety and security?” and “What do I do if it happens again?” Always remember that the goal of such conversations, Hamilton says, “Is to get them to reassure you that the policies that they have in their school work for your child.”