, 2025-05-01 14:15:00
Food allergies increased a child’s risk for being bullied, according to a new study published in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.
Children who said they had been bullied also had a higher prevalence of mental health and allergic conditions such as anxiety and asthma than their peers who had allergies but had not been subject to harassment. Experiencing bullying was also associated with a previous history of food allergy reactions at school or other public places.
Most incidents of reported bullying took place inside or around school and were perpetrated by schoolmates. Roughly one quarter of respondents said teachers and school staff were the offenders, a finding in other studies as well.
“With food allergy management, we focus a lot on physical safety,” but a child’s mental, emotional, and social health are sometimes warrant equal attention, said Lisa Bartnikas, MD, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School in Boston, and senior author of the study.
Bartnikas and her colleagues conducted a cross-sectional survey of nearly 300 parents and their children aged 5-17 years who had food allergies. A little over one third of children reported having been bullied owing to their food allergies. Overall, approximately 1 in 4 of children aged 6-18 years say they have been bullied, according to a 2024 report from Institute of Education Sciences.
Respondents were recruited from Boston Children’s Hospital and on social media outlets. Bartnikas said that the findings may not be generalizable, because the children were primarily White (about 89%) and had parents with relatively high family incomes (80% had an annual household income of $100,000 or more).
Children with anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder were more at risk for harm from their peers. About 31% of bullied children were diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, compared with roughly 9% of those who had not been bullied, the survey found.
“If you’re bullied, that might make you more likely to feel anxious,” Bartnikas said. “And if you’re someone who’s presenting as more anxious, that can make you more likely to be a target of bullying.”
Coexisting allergic conditions associated with an increased risk for bullying included asthma, atopic dermatitis, and food protein–induced enterocolitis syndrome, which can cause severe gastrointestinal distress such as vomiting.
Children who had ever experienced severe or public reactions, such as having an allergic event at school or staying in the hospital overnight, were more likely to be bullied.
Reported physical acts of bullying included waiving a food allergen in front of the child’s face (29%), throwing the item at them (19.4%), touching them with it (12.9%), property damage (12.9%), physical attacks (9.7%), and putting the allergen inside their food (6.5%). Children also experienced teasing, social exclusion, threats, and having rumors spread about them.
“One child I treated with multiple food allergens was devastated because he was excluded from a social group event and was told that he was not wanted — that because of his food allergies he was ‘too difficult and the other kids couldn’t eat what they wanted,’” said Elizabeth Lippner, MD, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, who was not associated with the study.
About 60% of kids reported feeling depressed or anxious as a result of harassment. About half said they felt embarrassed or experienced loneliness. Children also reported feeling worthless, experiencing fatigue, and getting poor grades in school.
Clinicians should ask patients about how school is going and if anyone is making them feel bad about their allergy, especially if they have risk factors noted in the study, Bartnikas said. If a clinician senses the child is being bullied, they should also screen for mental health issues, she said.
“In my practice, we try to screen every child with a food allergy for bullying at least once per year,” Lippner said. “It is built into my note template so that all healthcare team members are reminded to address this.”
The study adds to previous literature showing that kids who are bullied because of their food allergies experience a decline in quality of life. Other research has shown that allergic conditions such as asthma increase the risk for bullying. Clinicians can work with families to develop coping strategies, provide referrals to mental health treatment, offer antibullying resources, and advise parents to notify their child’s school, Bartnikas said.
“I recommend that parents talk to the school in detail to make sure the bullying is handled in such a way so that it does not draw unnecessary or unwanted attention to their child being bullied and so that their child can gain a sense of confidence and control over the situation,” Bartnikas said.
Bartnikas and Lippner report no relevant disclosures. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Brittany Vargas is a journalist covering medicine, mental health, and wellness.
