Researchers found that bullies and bully-victims \u2013 youth who are both perpetrators and victims \u2013 were more likely to use substances than were victims and non-involved youth.<\/p>\n \u201cOur findings suggest that one deviant behavior may be related to another,\u201d said Kisha Radliff, lead author of the study and assistant professor of school psychology at Ohio State University.<\/p>\n \u201cFor example, youth who bully others might be more likely to also try substance use.\u00a0 The reverse could also be true in that youth who use substances might be more likely to bully others.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers didn\u2019t find as strong a link between victims of bullying and substance use.<\/p>\n Radliff conducted the study with Joe Wheaton, associate professor in Special Education, and Kelly Robinson and Julie Morris, both former graduate students, all at Ohio State.<\/p>\n Their study appears in the April 2012 issue of the journal Addictive Behaviors<\/em>.<\/p>\n Data for the study came from a survey of 74,247 students enrolled in all public, private and Catholic middle and high schools in Franklin County, Ohio (which includes Columbus).<\/p>\n Among the 152 questions on the survey were eight that involved bullying, either as a victim or perpetrator.\u00a0 Students were asked about how often they told lies or spread false rumors about others, pushed people around to make them afraid, or left someone out of a group to hurt them.\u00a0 They were also asked how often they were the victims of such actions.<\/p>\n In addition, the questionnaire asked how often they used cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana.\u00a0 For this study, users were defined as those who reported use at least once a month.<\/p>\n Results showed that bullying was more common among middle-school students than those in high school, while substance use was more prevalent among high-school students.<\/p>\n About 30 percent of middle-school students were bullies, victims or bully-victims, compared to 23 percent of those in high school.<\/p>\n Fewer than 5 percent of middle-school youth used cigarettes, alcohol, or marijuana.\u00a0 But among high-school students, about 32 percent reported alcohol use, 14 percent used cigarettes and 16 percent used marijuana.<\/p>\n But substance use varied depending on involvement in bullying, the researchers found.<\/p>\n For example, among middle-school students, only 1.6 percent of those not involved in bullying reported marijuana use.\u00a0 But 11.4 percent of bullies and 6.1 percent of bully-victims used the drug.\u00a0 Findings showed that 2.4 percent of victims were marijuana users.<\/p>\n Among high school students, 13.3 percent of those not involved in bullying were marijuana users \u2013 compared to 31.7 percent of bullies, 29.2 percent of bully-victims, and 16.6 percent of victims.<\/p>\n Similar results were found for alcohol and cigarette use.<\/p>\n But the percentages tell only part of the story, Radliff said.\u00a0 The researchers also used a statistical analysis that showed that bullies and bully-victims had much higher than expected levels of substance use.<\/p>\n \u201cThat suggests there is a relationship between experimenting with substances and engaging in bullying behavior,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Statistically, however, there was no connection between being a victim and substance use among middle-school students, according to Radliff.\u00a0 The use of cigarettes and alcohol was statistically greater for victims in high school, but there was no statistically significant effect on marijuana use.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, it was the bullies and bully-victims who were the most likely to be substance users.<\/p>\n Radliff said these results may lead to ways anti-bullying initiatives can be improved.<\/p>\n \u201cMany schools are mandating anti-bullying programs and policies, and we think they need to take this opportunity to address other forms of deviant behavior, such as substance use,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n This might be especially important in middle school, where bullying is more prevalent, but substance use is still relatively rare.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we can intervene with bullies while they\u2019re in middle school, we may be able to help them before they start experimenting with substance use,\u201d she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Ohio State University press release: Middle- and high-school students who bully their classmates are more likely than others to use substances such as cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana, a… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[21,282,45,73,12,124],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1762,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1761\/revisions\/1762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/Bully.jpg\" "\\"bullying\\"")
Middle- and high-school students who bully their classmates are more likely than others to use substances such as cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana<\/strong>, a new study found.<\/p>\n