Who's Getting Bullied?

A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looks at the issue of bullying in the lives of our twelve to seventeen-year-olds. The report defines bullying as occurring when “a person is exposed to aggressive behavior repeatedly over time by one or more people and is unable to defend themself.” More than a third of the kids surveyed say they’ve been bullied over the past year. Over thirty-eight percent of twelve to seventeen year old girls report being bullied, and just under thirty percent of the boys surveyed report being bullied. The report also found that bullying is more prevalent among twelve to fourteen year olds, at just over thirty-eight percent, and less prevalent among fifteen to seventeen year olds, at just under thirty percent. With bullying prevalent in today’s teen culture, we need to teach our kids to show the love of Christ to their divine-image-bearing peers, and we need to minister well to our kids who have been victimized so that we might build their resilience.