WEDNESDAY, Oct. 30, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Bullying among American teens remains a big threat, with more than a third (34%) saying they've been bullied over the past year, new government data shows. According to the report's authors, bullying occurs when a person is "exposed to aggressive behavior repeatedly over time by one or more people and is unable to defend themself.
" The new report, from the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is based on answers given by young Americans ages 12 to 17 to a federal youth health survey conducted between mid-2021 and the end of 2023. Girls were more likely to report being bullied than boys, with rates of 38.
3% and 29.9%, respectively, according to a team led by Amanda Ng , a researcher at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Bullying rates did seem to subside a little as kids aged.
While 38.4% of youth ages 12 to 14 said they'd experienced bullying over the past year, that was true for only 29.7% of teens ages 15 to 17, the report found.
But one group was hit especially hard by bullying: LGBTQ+ kids. The CDC data shows that almost half (47.1%) of sexual or gender minority teenagers say they've been bullied over the past year.
"Previous research shows being bullied is associated with long-term psychological impact to well-being and poor mental health outcomes," Ng and her colleagues noted. The new data backs that up: Anxiety rates are much higher among kids who say they've faced bullying (29.8%) versus thos.
