Bullying ‘can be sole factor in teenage suicide’

BULLYING can be the sole factor in suicide among teenagers, a conference on the problem heard yesterday.

Dr Mona O’Moore of Trinity College Dublin, founder of the anti-bullying research and resource centre at the Department of Education, presented the results of an anti-bullying study to the annual conference of the Irish Association of Suicidology and the National Suicide Review Group in Tralee yesterday.

The study, conducted in Donegal primary schools in the past three years, showed that after 42 teachers received special training, bullying among 800 pupils was cut by 25%.