Even if bullying victimisation is linked to increased risk of self harm, most bullied children do not resort to self harm. Given the ubiquity of bullying, doctors, social care professionals, teachers, and parents need help to identify which bullied children are at greatest risk, to target interventions effectively. Several factors are known to increase the risk of self harm: being brought up in a deprived area, a family history of self harming behaviour, maltreatment, co-occurring behavioural and emotional problems, and a low IQ have all been associated with high rates of self harm.9 10 To inform clinical practice, we examined which of these family level and child level characteristics could help to identify, among bullied children, who is at greatest risk of self harm.
