School bullying ‘driving young people to suicide’

EVIDENCE is mounting that young people are committing suicide because of school bullying, an expert has warned.

Research psychologist Dr Conor McGuckin said he knew of a number of suicides caused by bullying. This was confirmed by notes left by the victims.

“We would point out that suicide would be a very permanent solution to what could be a very transitory problem,” said Dr McGuckin, who will address the Psychological Society of Ireland’s annual conference that opens in Derry today.

Studies show three out of four school children are either bullied, are bullies themselves, or both.

“We need to be able to empower children to be able to recognise what is happening and be able to understand that their reactions and feelings would be normal and that they will be listened to,” he said.

“We focus quite a lot on anti-social behaviour amongst young adults but... a lot of this is starting in the school playground and ending in the boardroom.”

Dr McGuckin, a psychology lecturer at Dublin Business School, pointed out that it was 12 years since the Department of Education had produced guidelines on dealing with school bullying and it needed updating.

“When the guidelines were produced bullying behaviour was largely associated with males. We now know a lot more about female aggression and how it manifests itself,” he said.

The pattern of bullying was also changing as children were not learning conflict resolution skills at home, he said.

“Unfortunately, we are at the stage where most of society believes that bullying is part of growing up, that it is character building. But it is not character building, it is character defeating.”