One in nine Dutch secondary school pupils is bullied – equivalent to three teenagers per class, according to new research by the public health institute RIVM.

The research is based on responses from more than 100,000 children carried out by local health boards.

The RIVM defines bullying as being sworn at, gossiped about, spat at, excluded and harassed on social media. In addition, 5% of pupils say they have been the victims of cyber bullying, the RIVM said.

Boys are twice as likely as girls to be bullies but girls and boys are victims in equal numbers.

Children who are bullied are also more likely to say they have emotional problems and that their health is not good, the researchers found.