Who do children tell when they are being bullied?
Many studies have found that children who are being bullied become less likely to tell as they get older, and when they do confide in someone, it is much more likely to be a family member or friend than a teacher. A worrying finding of many studies is that a lot of children do not tell anyone. Creating an atmosphere of openness in which children feel safe enough to talk to an adult about problems, is one of the key challenges for schools. In a 1989 study, half the pupils who had been bullied had told no-one about it. In a 2002 study this proportion had fallen to 22 per cent, which points to an increasing willingness among bullied pupils to talk. This could be due to the development of anti-bullying policies in schools during the period between the two studies.
