Bullying rampant among school children: Survey

Taipei, Oct. 8 (CNA) A survey conducted by children's rights advocacy groups has found that bullying among young children may be widespread across Taiwan, with more than a third of respondents indicating they had been bullied.

In a survey of 3,793 sixth graders, 36.4 percent of respondents said they had been bullied, and 46.1 percent said they had experience with bullying, Taiwan NGOs for CRC (Convention on the Rights of the Child), the NTU Children and Family Research Center, and the Good Neighbors association said on Tuesday.

Breaking down the results, 15.9 percent said they had been bullied, 9.7 percent said they had bullied others, and another 20.5 percent said they had both been bullied and bullied others, the survey found.

NTU Children and Family Research Center CEO Bethany C.Y. Wu (吳佳芸) said there are many different types of bullying, ranging from verbal and physical bullying to relationship and cyber bullying.

Such behavior could result from a child's experience of being harmed or discriminated, she said.

In the survey, 18 percent of respondents admitted to having "turned a blind eye" when they saw someone being bullied or having "done nothing" in such a scenario, and 9.1 percent even admitted that they had joined the bullies.

Verbal bullying was the most prevalent, including "name-calling" (21.7 percent of all respondents) and "making fun of my appearance" (11.9 percent).

Physical bullying included "kicking or hitting me for no reason," (17.3 percent), and relationship bullying included "spreading false rumors" or "making others not like me" (11.9 percent), Wu said.

It was therefore important, she said, to explore the reasons why victims were bullied, create channels for dialogue with students to fight discrimination and bullying, and engage in counseling to effectively prevent bullying in schools.