(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-11 16:36

A recent study by Australian study found evidence that habitual bullies are more likely than other children their age to experience high levels of depression and suicidal thoughts, according to media reported on Sunday.

For some kids, school can be a place of fear and loathing. In Australia, one in every six primary schoolchildren is bullied - a term that can mean anything from exclusion and teasing to physical violence.

Leading a range of anti-bullying programs over the past 10 years, professor Ken Rigby, a psychologist, social researcher and an authority on bullying, has been involved in assessing more than 70 such programs around the world. He found that for the victims, the first obvious response to bullying is absenteeism.

A large Australian study showed the more serious the bullying, the greater the incidence of absenteeism. They are more likely to have higher levels of stress, anxiety, depression and illness and an increased tendency to suicide, while bullies are more likely to drop out of school, abuse drugs or alcohol and develop delinquent or criminal behaviour.

Rigby stresses that the definition of bullying needs some refining in order to generate accurate figures. It may be the case that these levels have always existed, but the light of public scrutiny has made them appear to have increased.

He has concluded that the success of any approach relies on its implementation and prevention is the only cure for these children.