The Core Knowledge Blog

Kids who are aggressive early on in life are more likely to be victimized by bullies than non-aggressive kids.  That’s one of the key findings of a new study this week in the Archives of General Psychiatry.  Newsweek notes experts have previously documented a link between being aggressive and being tormented.

When volatile and angry children act out on their frustrations—smashing a toy after someone takes their ball away—they aren’t exactly beloved by their peers….Kids who take their wrath out on other kids, as the children did in the study, are also at risk. Their classmates don’t like them—and some will eventually make their displeasure known. Prior research has focused largely on school-age kids, around age 4 or 5, and the studies have been relatively small. The new study, which followed 1,970 children in Canada, traces behavior all the way back to toddlerhood.

The researchers found two other risk factors for “peer victimization” as well, Newsweek reports: harsh or reactive parenting—anger, shouting and spanking when the kids were fussy—and lower income families.