Wedgies? Stolen lunch money? Taunting? Think these are remnants of your bygone childhood? Think again.

A new study from the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and the School of Medicine has found that bullying is rampant in American elementary schools.

The report — published in the Apr. 12 issue of the “Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Practices” — found that nine out of 10 students in elementary school report being victimized by their peers and six out of 10 admit to bullying others.

Psychologist Tom Tarshis, who developed the Peer Interactions in Primary School questionnaire (PIPS) that was used in the study, said that he created the survey to address the lack of current, widely accepted research on the issue.

“There was no questionnaire that had been scientifically validated for use in an elementary school population,” he said. “We needed this proper instrument to measure bullying and victimization.”

Tarshis’ colleagues said the study would provide researchers with information on two kinds of bullying.

“This work developing PIPS will allow researchers to gather comprehensive information on both direct and indirect bullying and victimization as described by children as young as eight years,” said Pediatrics Prof. Lynne Huffman, in an email to The Daily. “As the paper notes, direct bullying includes things like pushing, kicking or overt threats, while indirect bullying is characterized by teasing, exclusion and giving ‘dirty’ looks.”

The PIPS questionnaire consisted of 22 questions concerning bullying and victimization. It was administered to 270 students in the third through sixth grades at three different elementary schools in California and Arizona.

The students checked boxes labeled “a lot,” “sometimes” or “never” in response to statements such as “at recess I play by myself.”

Approximately 90 percent of respondents answered “sometimes” to at least one question.

“What we found was that the vast majority of kids had at least experienced some victimization,” Tarshis said.

Bullying and victimization are linked to depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and criminal actions, Tarshis said, and an effective method of intervention is vital.

“You need treatment or intervention that addresses three different groups: the kids, the school staff [and] you have to work with the parents too,” Tarshis said. “You have to get everyone on board. We really need a comprehensive integrative curriculum adopted at the elementary school level.”

“We believe the PIPS will be a helpful tool that can be used to test intervention effectiveness,” Huffman added.

The researchers hope the publication of the study will spur discussion about bullying.

“Hopefully it will bring [the issues of bullying and victimization] to the attention of the scientific community — pediatricians and child psychiatrists,” Tarshis said.

“‘The Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics’ is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the developmental and psychosocial aspects of pediatric health care,” Huffman said. “As it is written for and read by physicians, clinicians, psychologists and researchers who are concerned with emotional, behavioral and psychosomatic problems as well as learning disorders and developmental disabilities, it provides a terrific opportunity for disseminating the important conclusions of this research project."