About 10.2 percent of surveyed middle and high schoolers said they were bullied last year, down from the 15.1 percent reported in 2023, the Child Welfare League Foundation said today.
The foundation between Nov. 12 and Dec. 22 last year conducted an online survey of more than 16,000 high schoolers and middle-school students in grades seven, eight and nine from across Taiwan.
Although bullying has reduced, sleep-related problems among those who have been bullied increased from 19.5 to 30.1 percent, with one in four bullied children having thoughts of self-harm or suicide, the survey found.
Photo: Taipei Times
The foundation found that in the past year, the majority of bullying was verbal at 64.9 percent, compared with 24.5 percent for “social” bullying, which can include ganging up on one individual or spreading rumors.
On a scale of one to 10, 12.8 percent said the severity of bullying in Taiwan was the most severe at 10.
Children who were often bullied experienced on average two to three negative psychological and physical impacts, the survey found, with 53.1 percent reporting feelings of isolation, 48.6 percent reporting low self-esteem and 44.8 percent feeling helpless.
Meanwhile, 30.1 percent said they had insomnia or poor sleep, and 22.5 percent had thoughts of suicide or self-harm due to bullying.
Children with divorced parents, or who have experienced loss or abuse can easily fall victim to bullying or become bullies themselves at a rate much higher than children who have experienced less childhood trauma, the foundation said.
Therefore, the key to stopping bullying is for schools to understand childhood trauma and provide a safe, friendly and supportive environment for students, including the necessary resources, such as guidance, training and tools to support children, it said.
In schools that better understand and recognize trauma and its effects, bullying rates were only 6.6 percent, lower than the national average, while schools with a poor understanding had rates as high as 24.3 percent, a four-fold increase, the foundation said.
Schools with higher availability of trauma-informed resources reported even lower bullying rates at just 9.6 percent, compared with 25.4 percent in schools lacking adequate resources, it added.
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