Why kids bully — and what to do about it

Experts weigh in on the root causes of bullying behavior and the best course of action

A sad boy.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

For many parents, one of the biggest worries is that their kid is being picked on. And unfortunately, that concern isn't unwarranted: In 2017, almost one in three 6th-graders reported being bullied at school.

Kids picking on other kids is an age-old problem that many schools struggle to deal with, no matter how comprehensive their anti-bullying policy. When my son was the target of bullying behavior a couple of years ago — name-calling, initially, which escalated into physical violence — we hit an obstacle: His school saw the incident as conflict, not bullying, and tried to deal with it using mediation strategies. That simply didn't work.

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Claire Gillespie

Claire Gillespie is a freelance writer with bylines on Health, SELF, Refinery29, Glamour, The Washington Post, and many more. She likes to write about parenting, health, and culture. She lives in Scotland with her husband and six kids, where she uses every (rare) spare moment to work on her novel.