Bullies come in all shapes and sizes

are unlikely to be aware of those insecurities. This is particularly true of bullies in middle school or high school, who at least superficially tend to think well of themselves and generally are regarded as the most popular students in their schools.

This is according to a UCLA study of more than 2,000 sixth graders from ethnically diverse public middle schools in the Los Angeles area. As part of the decade-long study, teachers and students anonymously identified which students were thought of as bullies and which as victims. The teachers and students also were asked — without knowing who had already been named as victims and bullies — to name the least and most popular students.

The study indicated that “bullies are, by far, the coolest kids,” Jaanu Juvonen a professor of developmental psychology said in an article posted online at newsroom.ucla.edu. “And the victims, in turn, are very uncool.”

But this distinction was only applicable to students in middle school, and not to elementary-school-aged kids, according to Juvonen.

“Clearly, there’s something about the school environment that makes bullies more valued among their peers in sixth grade,” said Juvonen. “Think about all the changes that kids go through when they transfer from elementary school to middle school. The school not only becomes an average seven times larger than their elementary school, but now they go from one period to the next, having a different teacher in each, and also different classmates.”

Juvonen suggested identifying and treating bullies could help end the cycle of bullying in schools.

“There might be another way to provide them with a sense of control and power other than being mean to others,” she said. “I’ve seen some very clever teachers do that. When they see a kid who’s constantly on the case of other kids, these clever teachers give this kid a special role” that becomes a positive outlet for negative emotions.

Belopolsky agreed that teachers can help.

“There are things teachers can do in the classroom, absolutely,” she said. “But if the classroom teacher feels it is beyond their scope, my goodness, refer to the school counselor.

Call a parent. You might have zero bullying tolerance at school. So it is a discipline issue, and deal with the discipline issue, but get to the root. You’ve got to tap into that child — high school, middle school and elementary — and see really where that is stemming from.”