NICHD aims to understand the short- and long-term health effects of bullying, how the patterns of bullying have changed over time, and other information. NICHD’s research on bullying includes traditional bullying behavior (physical, verbal, and relational) as well as electronic aggression (“cyberbullying”).
Some of NICHD’s projects related to bullying include but are not limited to:
- Examining the co-occurrence of different types of bullying, including physical, verbal, social exclusion, spreading rumors, and cyberbullying, as well as their physical and psychological effects
- Determining the health and behavioral consequences of bullying, as well as the outcomes to those being bullied
- Identifying characteristics and other factors that increase a child’s risk for being bullied
- Determining the prevalence of bullying and being bullied among children from different countries and comparing rates across countries
- Identifying changes in bullying patterns and frequency over time and how these differ between and among different countries