(The Los Angeles Daily News) -- Contrary to popular opinion, schoolyard bullies do not suffer from low self-esteem and are often popular and considered "cool" by their classmates, according to a new UCLA study.

The study, which focused on nearly 2,000 sixth-graders, found that while about 7 percent of 12-year-olds are bullies, more than 20 percent of students are either bullies, victims or both.

"Bullies are psychologically strong," said Jaana Juvonen, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and lead author of the study.

"Bullying Among Young Adolescents: The Strong, the Weak and the Troubled" was published in the December issue of the magazine Pediatrics.

Juvonen's research found that bullies were admired by their peers, and thus felt good about themselves. Bullies are popular because their dominance earns them respect among the general student population who tend not to sympathize with the victims, the study found.

"They don't show any signs whatsoever of depression, loneliness or anxiety," Juvonen said. "They look even healthier than the socially adjusted kids who are not involved in the bullying."

Boys are twice as likely as girls to be bullies, and almost twice as likely to be victims of bullies. Boys also are three times more likely to be in both categories.

The study defines bullying as "starting fights and pushing other kids around," "putting down and making fun of others," and "spreading nasty rumors about others."

Unfortunately, most anti-bullying programs in schools are based on the concept that bullies pick on other kids because they have low self-esteem, Juvonen said. She said attention should focus on how to discourage support for bullying behavior by other students.

"Unless we do something about this peer support and encouragement, we're probably not going to make much headway," she said.

"We need to be addressing bullying not only at the level of individual, aggressive kids, but at the level of the whole social collective," Juvonen said. "How can we get the other kids to be less supportive of the bully and more supportive of the victim?"

The Los Angeles Unified School District passed an anti-bullying policy in 2001 at the urging of board member Julie Korenstein. She hailed the new report, saying it could be enormously helpful and planned to encourage district staff to read it.

"We as educators can incorporate the investigations and in-depth studies to help us take corrective action," Korenstein said. "It's important that we begin finding ways to resolve it."

Although the school district keeps statistics on assaults and other criminal behavior, it's difficult to gauge the level of bullying because many incidents go unreported, officials say.

LAUSD's office of environmental health and safety recently issued a safe school plan template that is designed to prevent acts of violence and other emergencies, and outlines specific plans of action, said Angelo Bellomo, director of the office.

Juvonen and Sandra Graham, a UCLA professor of education, are in the fourth year of a long-term study of more than 1,900 sixth-grade students and their teachers in 11 Los Angeles area public middle schools with predominantly minority and low-income students.

The research is funded by the National Science Foundation and a grant from the W.T. Grant Foundation.

Some studies suggest that picking on other kids is a way for bullies to get attention, and that they gain something from seeing other children in distress. It can be powerful for teenagers, in particular, who are testing their independence and power, to put someone else down, Juvonen said.

One explanation why other children support the bully can be found in evolutionary theory: Primates do it, Juvonen said.

"The dominant individuals are dominant because they put everyone else in their place, and show dominance by being aggressive," she said, but she added that theory doesn't make bullying acceptable.

Children who are bullied -- victims made up 9 percent of the children in the study -- experience severe depression, anxiety, loneliness, and often suffer in silence, Juvonen said. Bullying frequently is done when adults are not present.

Victims tend to believe that they are the only ones who get picked on, "and that it's something about them that they can't change," Juvonen said. "That one belief is so detrimental. They feel so bad about themselves."

And while bullies may enjoy their peer status now, some studies have shown that childhood bullies are four times more likely to be arrested as their non-bullying peers, Juvonen said.

However, children who are both bully and victim are particularly troubled, Juvonen said. These children get picked on by some of their peers, but also pick on other kids on their own.

"They don't look that disturbed, but if you look at other indicators -- teacher reports of behavior -- they are by far the most disruptive students in the class and are also the most disengaged from schoolwork," Juvonen said. "There's a high level of ostracism from the peer group. These are the kids classmates are least likely to want to be with. They are not good company."

Parents who are concerned about bullying in schools can check out Bellomo's Web site at www.lausd-oehs.org.

Copyright 2004 The Los Angeles Daily News. All rights reserved.