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Family Meals Can Help Teens Deal with Bullying

| September 2, 2014 Comment

Family meals can help teens deal with bullying, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. Many teens these days are subject to cyberbullying that’s difficult to detect for parents and teachers.

Researchers surveyed over 18,000 teens at 49 schools in Wisconsin. One in 5 students said that they had been bullied at least once, either on the Internet or via text messages over the past year. The study found that girls are more likely to be bullied than boys, and those who had been cyberbullied were also more likely to have mental issues like anxiety, self-harm, thoughts of suicide, fighting, vandalism and substance abuse problems.

One survey question asked teens how often they ate dinner with their families, and researchers found that those who were cyberbullied but ate with their families showed fewer mental health problems. Spending time with parents, whether at dinner, in the car or elsewhere, gives kids a chance to discuss what’s happening to them, and provides parents an opportunity to intervene and support their kids in such situations. More….

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