Bullying victimisation was assessed during interviews with mothers when the children were aged 7 and 10 years, and separately in private interviews with the children during home visits when the children were 12 years old. Details of psychometric measurements for the bullying measures reported here have been described previously.13 14 We explained to the mother or child that: “someone is being bullied when another child says mean and hurtful things, makes fun, or calls a person mean and hurtful names; completely ignores or excludes someone from their group of friends or leaves them out of things on purpose; hits, kicks, or shoves a person, or locks them in a room; tells lies or spreads rumours about them; or does other hurtful things like these. We call it bullying when these things happen often and it is difficult for the person being bullied to stop it happening. We do not call it bullying when it is done in a friendly or playful way.” When bullying was reported, the interviewer asked the mother or child to describe what happened. An independent rater
