A child living with a chronic medical condition such as asthma will often be teased or bullied. Now researchers have revealed some of the factors that explain why such bullying occurs.
The UK study involved almost 1,000 children aged sevan and above with asthma, who were quizzed about bullying and asked about how having the disease impacted on their life in other ways.
Factors linked to an increased risk of bullying included limited participation in games that leads to exclusion and poor management of the condition, along with parental smoking and parents being overly concerned about their child’s health.
The research, carried out by the Derbyshire Children’s Hospital, concluded that doctors should be more proactive in discussing bullying with children who have asthma and should also talk about the effects of having asthma on other areas of their day-to-day life.
Their findings, presented at the European Respiratory Society’s Annual Congress in Vienna, were gleaned from the answers parents and children gave to questionnaires that quizzed them on family lifestyles, conditions in the home and the child’s overall experience of having asthma.
The lack of participation in games or sport was pinpointed as one of the key factors. As asthma is a chronic lung condition that affects breathing, exercise is one of the key triggers for the disease and so many children, depending on the severity of their asthma, are limited in what sports they’re allowed to take part in. The children surveyed reported a feeling of isolation and of sadness that they weren’t part of mainstream activities and those feelings were contributory factors in bullying.
The research identified the factors that can be changed to improve a child’s overall wellbeing, including better management of the condition, helping parents to deal with their increased worry over their child’s health and identifying safe levels of activity and participation in games and sport.
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