40% of children surveyed were bullied

Forty percent of nine-year-olds were victims of bullying or being “picked on”, and about 90% reported it had caused them upset.

Children in the Growing Up in Ireland report were asked to respond to a series of questions about whether they had been bullied in the previous year by either a child or an adult. Prevalence rates were the same for boys and girls.

A significantly higher proportion of children from single-parent families with one or two children (47%) reported having been bullied, compared with children from two-parent families with three or more children (37%).