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Bullying and Special Populations

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Practical Strategies for Clinical Management of Bullying

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Abstract

Research findings consistently demonstrate that specific populations are at increased risk of being victimized and/or bullied by their peers, including students with disabilities, sexual minority youth, and obese or overweight youth. Students with disabilities are twice as likely to be identified as perpetrators and victims of bullying than students without disabilities. Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are almost four times as likely to be victimized by bullying as children without ADHD; relational bullying and ostracism are particularly prevalent in this group. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at particularly high risk for victimization from bullying. Weight-based bullying is identified as the most common reason for victimization at 41 %, followed by perceived sexual orientation at 38 %, and intellectual ability or academic performance at school at 10 %.

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Shetgiri, R., Espelage, D.L., Carroll, L. (2015). Bullying and Special Populations. In: Practical Strategies for Clinical Management of Bullying. SpringerBriefs in Public Health(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15476-3_4

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