ABC News
22 August 2001
LONDON (Reuters) - Bullies in British school playgrounds are not just bigger and stronger than many of their victims but healthier too, according to research published on Wednesday.
Researchers at Britain's University of Hertfordshire said victims of primary school bullies had significantly more health problems such as coughs and colds than their tormentors.
Psychosomatic health problems such as bedwetting and nightmares were also more common among those who were victimized.
"Victims...had significantly more often repeated sore throats, colds or coughs, breathing problems, nausea and poor appetite," the team, led by Professor David Wolke, said in a report released by the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
"They were also more often worried about going to school and were more likely to make up illnesses to stay at home during school days," it said.
Wolke's team studied 1,600 children aged between six and nine from 31 primary schools in Hertfordshire, southern England.
Their results showed that bullying was widespread. Almost 40 percent of the children said they were repeatedly bullied. Ten percent said they were both bully and victim. Four percent said they were bullied and were never victims.
Pure bullies had the least physical and psychosomatic health problems of any of the children. That pointed to a constitution which allowed them to be "dominant in inappropriate ways," the report said.
© 2001 ABCNEWS Internet Ventures