Groups most at risk of bullying identified in study

IN a move that has echoes of the film The Breakfast Club, a significant study on school bullying has identified five groups — some victims, others perpetrators.

However, while the 1985 John Hughes film sees the five subcultures resolve their differences in time for a happy ending, the research by a senior lecturer in psychology at Trinity College Dublin revealed that “alternative” subcultures such as “emos”, “moshers” and “goths” are more likely to be bullied and that members of “non-alternative” groups such as ‘chavs’ and ‘D4s’ are more likely to carry out the bullying.

This was revealed in a research paper on alterophobic bullying which involved the views of 820 secondary school students.