Who Are the Targets of Bullying? (continued)

Buy this book »

It is no surprise that students who combine aggressive behavior with victimization usually come from a harsh environment where the parenting is hostile and punitive and there is lots of conflict and violence. In a prospective study, 38 percent of the boys who emerged as "aggressive victims" had been physically abused and many had witnessed domestic violence (Schwartz, Dodge, Pettit, and Bates, 1997).

In the long run, there is risk for any child who is bullied. When Olweus (1993, 2001) followed up on boys who'd been bullied in grades 6 through 9, he found that at the age of 23 they were more depressed and had lower self-esteem than their nonvictimized peers. The Australian bullying expert Ken Rigby (200la) reported that students who'd been victimized were more likely to be anxious, depressed, socially dysfunctional, and physically unwell three years later; many thought about killing themselves. And a Dutch study of children dealing with harassment revealed that some as young as 9 years of age had suicidal thoughts (van der Wal, de Wit, and Hirasing, 2003). In later life, students who've been the targets of relational bullying face risks above and beyond those encountered by the targets of physical bullying. They are even more depressed, lonely, anxious, and rejected (Crick et al., 1999; Crick et aI., 2001). "Bully-victims" are the most disturbed of all, with the most serious beehavior problems and difficulties at school Juvenon, Graham, and Schuster, 2003; Kumpulainen, Rasanen, and Henttonen, 1999; Wolke et aI., 2000).