Bullying, teasing `big problems' for US kids

Bullying, teasing `big problems' for US kids - survey
Reuters

MAR 8: Bullying, teasing and discrimination are `big problems' for American children, a new survey reported on Thursday.

Nearly three-quarters of the children surveyed said teasing and bullying occurred at their schools, and about half of those aged 8-11 said discrimination and violence were "big problems" for kids their age.

By coincidence, the survey was released in the aftermath of the latest fatal school shooting in the United States in which the 15-year-old alleged killer is said by friends to have been frequently bullied at school.

The survey, conducted for the Kaiser Family Foundation, Nickelodeon children's television and Children Now, aimed to show the need for better communication between US Parents and children.

"It's not just parents of teenagers anymore who stay up late worrying about their kids," said Kaiser's Tina Hoff in a statement. "This is a wake-up call for parents to start talking early and often with their kids."

Most parents have talked with their children in the pre-teen age group about alcohol and drugs, discrimination and teasing and bullying, the survey found, while fewer have discussed puberty or reproduction.

Even when parents and children do talk about these issues, the message does not always get through. From one-third to more than half of 8- to 11-year-olds said they did not recall conversations with parents on a particular issue, while parents said the issue had been discussed.

The national survey of 1,249 parents and 823 children age 8 to 15 was conducted between Dec 7 and Jan 18 by telephone; the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percent for parents, plus or minus 4 percent for children.

Charles "Andy" Williams, accused of killing two fellow students and wounding 13 people at a high school in the San Diego suburb of Santee in California on Monday, made a brief court appearance on Wednesday.

"My school is horrible. I hate it there, everyone is horrible to me," Williams, who had moved to California from Maryland, is heard saying in a home video he shot with a Maryland friend last year, showing off his Santee home for the benefit of friends in Maryland. The video was shown on the nationally syndicated show "Inside Edition" on Wednesday.