School Bullies More Likely to Be Substance Users

School officials who are developing anti-bullying programs and policies may also want to incorporate substance abuse prevention measures for those students who are identified as bullies or victims of bullies. That is because those students who are bullies or bullied in middle school are more likely to be substance users in high school.

Researchers have found that bullies and bully-victims are more likely to use cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana than non-involved students and students who are victims of other types of behavior.

Ohio State University researchers studied surveys from 74,247 students enrolled in public, private and Catholic middle and High schools in Franklin County, Ohio. The students were questioned about participating in or being the victim of bullying type behavior and about their substance use.

Key Survey Findings

Here are some of the key findings of the Ohio State research:

• Bullying is more common in middle school that high school.
• Substance use is more common in high school.
• Fewer than 5% of middle school students were substance users.
• In high school, 32% used alcohol, 14% cigarettes and 16% marijuana.
• In middle school only 1.6% of non-involved student used marijuana, but 11.4% of bullies, 6.1% of bully-victims and 2.4% of other victims smoke marijuana.
• In high school, 13.3% of students not involved in bullying used marijuana, but 31.7% of bullies, 29.2% of bully-victims and 16.6% of other victims smoked weed.
• Similar results were found for alcohol and tobacco use.

Opportunity for Intervention

Authors of the study said the results present school officials with an opportunity to develop substance abuse intervention programs for students identified as bullies or bully-victims, especially at the middle school level were bullying is more prevalent, but substance use is still relatively rare.

"If we can intervene with bullies while they're in middle school, we may be able to help them before they start experimenting with substance use," said Kisha Radliff, lead author, in a news release.

^{Source: Radliff, KM, et al. "Illuminating the relationship between bullying and substance use among middle and high school youth." Addictive Behaviors April 2012.}

Related Information:

• Is Your Teenager Using Drugs or Alcohol?
  
• Teen Drinking - Not Just a Phase
  
• How to Talk to Kids about Alcohol

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