Parents of bullies suffer stress, says charity survey

A charity’s survey of parents of bullies found 80 per cent of
900 parents suffered high levels of stress and feared they were
losing control of their child, writes Shirley
Kumar.

The charity Parentline Plus, which launched their findings to
coincide with the government’s first anti-bullying week, said
it wanted parents of bullies to be offered better support.

According to the survey more than two-thirds of parents calling
the charity’s helpline from April, 2003, to March, 2004, were
worried about their child’s uncontrollable anger.

Although most parents complained about their teenage sons’
bullying behaviour, the charity said, “a worrying level of
nine to 12-year-olds were being cited as bullies”.

A quarter of all calls were from lone parents with more than
half saying their divorce or separation had a negative impact on
their child’s behaviour, found the survey.

The charity said schools and other support staff should be
trained to advise vulnerable families. Anti-bullying policies
needed to be more family orientated, it added.

Children’s charity NCH said all schools should have a
teacher responsible for implementing the government’s anti-bullying
strategy.

The government launched its campaign by asking children to wear
green wristbands to show they would not tolerate bullying.