Published online November 1, 2007
PEDIATRICS Vol. 120 No. 5 November 2007, pp. 1227-1228 (doi:10.1542/peds.2007-2569)

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Relevance of Motor Skill Problems in Victims of Bullying: In Reply

Pernille Due, MD
Anette Andersen, PhD
Department of Social Medicine
Institute of Public Health
Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Copenhagen
DK-1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
Research Center for Quality in Medicine Use
DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark

Juan Merlo, PhD
Department of Clinical Sciences
Faculty of Medicine
Lund University
SE-205 02 Malmö, Sweden

Ebba Holme Hansen, MSc
Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy
Section of Social Pharmacy
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
University of Copenhagen
DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Research Center for Quality in Medicine Use
DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark

Bjørn E. Holstein, MagScientSoc
Department of Social Medicine
Institute of Public Health
Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Copenhagen
DK-1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
Research Center for Quality in Medicine Use
DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark

By definition, bullying takes place among children with different status levels, from children with higher status toward children with lower status.¹ We agree that social skills are crucially important for adolescents to achieve status in the group and that, consequently, lack of social skills, also when deriving from autism spectrum disorder (ASD), will lead to lower status in the group and increase the child's risk of bullying victimization. Although we agree that ASD may increase risk of bullying victimization for the individual, it is unlikely that ASD explains most of the prevalence of bullying victimization at the population level in countries with a high prevalence of bullying (eg, Denmark).

The prevalence of bullying among Danish children was 25% in 1994 and 25% in 1998. Four years later, after instituting intensive national-level policies directed at bullying in Danish schools, the prevalence was 11%.² The Danish interventions were directed at the school and school-class environments and were highly effective in lowering the prevalence of bullying. Also, we found large variations in the prevalence of bullying victimization between schools and between countries: in Danish schools in 1998 ranging between 10% and 46%³ and in our international study ranging between 6.3% (Swedish girls) and 41.4% (Lithuanian boys).⁴ It is unlikely that these prevalence differences over time and between schools and countries are explained by ASD prevalence differences.

Politically correct or not, bullying is not a random event. It occurs more often toward children who are fragile for one reason or another. This means thatstrengthening any child's resources, social as well as mental and physical, is an important step to reduce each individual's risk of being bullied. However, in populations with a high prevalence of bullying, the overall risk of bullying at the population level is not likely to be attributable to the prevalence of children with ASD or other "weaknesses" but, rather, likely to be largely attributable to the acceptance of bullying behavior in the environment. Only this explains the large prevalence differences between countries, schools, and classes, and only this explains that the prevalence of bullying victimization in Denmark can be reduced by 56% over a period of 4 years.

The above-mentioned results, as well as international literature, state that intervention against bullying is effective when it addresses the school and school-class environment.^5–7 In countries such as Sweden with very low bullying prevalence,⁴ environmental preventive strategies may have fully served their purpose, and individual-level strategies may be more important in reaching an absolute level of 0% prevalence of bullying.

REFERENCES

1. Olweus D. Bullying at School: What We Know and What We Can Do. Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell; 1993
2. Due P, Holstein BE, eds. The school-child survey 2002 [in Danish]. Available at: www.hbsc.dk. Accessed September 13, 2007
3. Due P, Holstein BE, Schultz Jørgensen P. Bullying as health threat among school children [in Danish]. Ugeskr Laeger. 1999;161 :2201 –2206[Medline]
4. Due P, Holstein BE, Lynch JW, et al. Bullying and symptoms among school-aged children: international comparative cross sectional study in 28 countries. Eur J Public Health. 2005;15 :128 –132[Abstract/Free Full Text]
5. Olweus D. Bullying at school: basic facts and effects of a school based intervention program. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1994;35 :1171 –1190[Web of Science][Medline]
6. Stevens V, De Bourdeaudhuij I, Van Oost P. Bullying in Flemish schools: an evaluation of anti-bullying intervention in primary and secondary schools. Br J Educ Psychol. 2000;70 :195 –210[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
7. Salmivalli C, Kaukiainen A, Voeten M. Anti-bullying intervention: implementation and outcome. Br J Educ Psychol. 2005;75 :465 –487[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

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PEDIATRICS (ISSN 1098-4275). ©2007 by the American Academy of Pediatrics

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This Article Extract Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services E-mail this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My File Cabinet Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Due, P. Articles by Holstein, B. E. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Due, P. Articles by Holstein, B. E. Related Collections Office Practice Social Bookmarking                         What's this?