Forty three per cent of Irish 15 year olds have been the victims of bullying, with 14 per cent experiencing three or more different forms of this, research released today has indicated.
The survey of approximately 4,500 Irish students, conducted as part of a wider OECD study, also reveals that this appears to have a significant impact on their performance in tests.
"The relationship between bullying and achievement seems to be influenced by gender," the report, entitled "Ready for Tomorrow's World," also states.
For example, it notes that females who experienced one type of bullying averaged 16 points fewer than those who had not experienced any bullying, compared to 6 points for males.
Similarly, differences in achievement among males are significant only when those who had not been bullied were compared to those who experienced four or more types of bullying, the report finds.
But speaking at a conference in Croke Park in Dublin earlier today, one of the co-authors of the report, Rachel Cunningham, said the level of bullying indicated in the study, while unusually high, may be attributable to a number of factors.
These included the fact that students were not asked if they had been bullied, but rather were presented with a list of five types of bullying and requested to indicate if they had personally experienced any or all of these. The types of bullying ranged from name calling to having been physically hurt.
The report forms part of a wider analysis of Irish students who participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2006, which was conducted by researchers at the Educational Research Centre in Drumcondra.
PISA is an OECD project which is designed to assess the scientific, mathematical and reading literacy skills of 15 year olds in 57 countries.
It found that Irish 15 year olds continue to perform well when it comes reading. This compares to a ranking of 20th out of 57 countries in Science and 22nd out of 57 countries in Mathematics.