Family Violence

Family violence may increase risk of bullying.
In a front-page story, the Boston Globe (4/22, A1, Lazar) reports that "one-fourth of Massachusetts middle-schoolers and 16 percent of high school students report enduring bullying at school," according to a report released by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that puts the "state at the center of the national discussion over the issue." The study found that students who "said they had been involved in bullying, as both a perpetrator and a victim, were five times more likely to report they had been hurt physically by a family member, compared to those who said they were neither a victim nor a bully. And they were substantially more likely to have witnessed violence against other family members."
Bloomberg News (4/22, Vannucci) reports that the study found that "bullies and victims were about three times more likely to witness family violence." Around "44 percent of middle school students and 31 percent of high schoolers are involved in harassment incidents," according to the researchers. "Almost 27 percent of middle school students were bully victims versus 16 percent of high school students"; and about "7.5 percent of the middle school students were bullies, compared with 8.4 percent for the high school students."