Bullies have high self-esteem, low depression rates

Researchers at Simon Fraser University surveyed a group of Vancouver high school students and got the results which oppose earlier assumptions about bullies.

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Also, bullying is in the genes and not something learnt outside, the researchers said.

“Most anti-bullying programmes try to change the behaviour of bullies… and they usually don’t work, That’s probably because the behaviour is biologically hard-wired, not learned,” Wong said.

Wong and student Jun-Bin Koh surveyed 135 teenagers from a Vancouver high school. A standard questionnaire – asking things like how often they were “hit, kicked or shoved” – divided the students into the categories of bully, bystander, victim or victim-bully.

Some of the differences were not statistically significant, but bullies — “about 11 percent of the group” — came out on top on three main outcomes: they scored highest on self-esteem and social status and lowest on depression, said the study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Wong recommended a rethinking of how schools tackle bullying, saying that merely punishing the perpetrators not only fails to work, but in some cases enhances their status.