Did you know that the government made an announcement on the rate of bullying in kids age 12-18 in the US? Did you know that rates are down across the board? Did you know that the percentage of kids who reported being bullied at school during the year was the lowest since the government started tracking the data in 2005? No? I’m not surprised:
The School Crime Supplement (SCS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey collects data on bullying by asking a nationally representative sample of students ages 12–18 if they had been bullied at school. In 2013, about 22 percent of students reported being bullied at school during the school year. This percentage was lower than the percentage reported in every prior survey year in which these data were collected (28 percent each in 2005, 2009, and 2011 and 32 percent in 2007).
Here’s a nice chart:
Male bullying down. Female bullying down. Overall bullying down. Bullying is down in Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, and Asians. It’s down in 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. It’s down in urban, rural, and suburban areas. Nice.
It’s even down in public schools. The one and only tick up I see in in private schools. Interesting.
Please understand that I’m not trying to minimize bullying here. One in five kids is still too much, and I wish it were lower. I applaud those who are working to achieve those goals. But it might be nice to see some positive news about “the kids these days”. It sometimes feels like the vast majority of stories I read constitute a steady drumbeat about how kids are the most violent, the most sexual, the most addicted, the most lazy – and how media, video games, poor parenting, and society in general are all to blame.
I just don’t see it.
P.S. Not everyone ignored this. Lyndsey Layton’s piece in WaPo tipped me off to the report, although I wish she had linked to it!
