Children who are chronically bullied in school do not just suffer physically or emotionally. A new study reveals their academic performance could also be affected. Parents and teachers should watch out for the signs in order to help the kids.
The study, which has been published in the Journal of Educational Psychology, tracked 383 kindergarten students from public schools in Illinois until they reached the 12th grade. The researchers, who started working in 1992, did an annual survey of the children even as some of the subjects moved to different states, CNN reports.
The researchers looked into the subjects' academic performance, standardized test scores, teacher's evaluation and mental and emotional assessments. The researchers learned in its annual surveys that one in four students in the study experienced chronic bullying in the early years of schooling.
According to Philly, researchers also saw that while 26 percent of the children experienced decrease bullying as they got older and partly because they moved to different schools, its impact academically showed in the kids' report cards. Some of the kids manifested a lack of enthusiasm for school work, as well as low confidence in their academic abilities.
"For teachers and parents, it's important to know that victimization tends to decline as kids get older, but some children never stop suffering from bullying during their school years," study author Gary Ladd said. There is hope, however, as some children who were bullied as young kids can eventually recover if provided with proper anti-bullying programs or guidance from parents and teachers.
Experts suggest parents have to continually talk to their kids about school or their social life among schoolmates so they get a sense of children's feelings. "Frequently, kids who are being victimized or abused by other kids don't want to talk about it," Ladd said.
Parents of bullied kids should also talk to teachers or school staff to better understand what is really happening in school. It should also be noted cyber-bullying did not exist when the study started but parents and teachers have to also consider this in dealing with bullying incidence today.
