Bad Breaks Contribute to Bullying

ANN ARBOR, MICH (WXYZ) - Bullying is the new topic of conversation among parents of young students.

A study just out from the University of Michigan and some other campuses shows that this kind of behavior is the sum of a running total of bad situations in a young person's life.

The research shows that bullying, as well as cruelty to animals, comes from a variety of antisocial behavior such as fighting, school attendance, stealing and lying. But animal cruelty isn't necessarily an end result of the same kinds of behavior.

The bullying could be triggered, among other things, when the child was being forced to perform chores that were considered to hard to accomplish or could be risky.

Animal cruelty be could be related to swearing, and saying mean things. It might also result from a  a sexual assault from an adult, or from perhaps an parent in the home who may have once been  imprisoned.

Associate professor of social work at U-M, Brian Perron, says that, "The results also suggested that the mechanisms that give rise to bullying are separate from animal cruelty."

The majority of those who had a history of these behaviors were men. They were not married and were of low income. They also were not well educated.

Other schools that assisted in this report are Saint Louis University, Florida State University, Iowa State University, and the University of North Carolina.

More information on this study can be found at The Journal of Interpersonal Violence at :
http://jiv.sagepub.com/