Research from the UK and USA: 20% of kids are experiencing something psychologically worse than parental abuse…
Sunday, August 13, 2023.
New Research Reveals the Profoundly Toxic Residue of Having been Bullied as a Child.
The Take-Away Finding is that Bullying has a Worse Impact on Future Adult Mental Health than Parental Abuse
The study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry found problematic life experiences for bullied children (Lereya et al., 2015).
Professor Dieter Wolke from Warwick’s Department of Psychology and Warwick Medical School, who led the research, said:
“The mental health outcomes we were looking for included anxiety, depression or suicidal tendencies.
Our results showed those who were bullied were more likely to suffer from mental health problems than those who were maltreated.
Being both bullied and maltreated also increased the risk of overall mental health problems, anxiety and depression in both groups.”
While both abuse and bullying are known to cause mental health problems later on, this is the first study to compare them
Professor Wolke also said:
“Being bullied is not a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up; it has serious long-term consequences.
It is important for schools, health services and other agencies to work together to reduce bullying and the adverse effects related to it.”
A third were bullied in the UK
The study looked at two groups, one in the US (1,273 participants) and one in the UK (4,026 participants).
In the US group, bullying was assessed between the ages of 9 and 16 and they were followed up at between 19- and 25-years-old.
For the purposes of this cross-cultural study, Maltreatment was defined as:
“…physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, or severe maladaptive parenting (or both) between ages 8 weeks and 8·6 years…”
UK kids vs kids in the USA
In the UK study incidents of bullying was catalogued at 8, 10 and 13. The study subjects were then followed up at the age of 18. Here’s what they found in the UK:
8.5% of children reported maltreatment only,
29.7% reported bullying only,
and an unlucky 7% reported both maltreatment and being bullied.
These were the findings in the US:
15 percent reported maltreatment,
16.3 percent reported bullying,
and nearly 10% (9.8 percent to be precise) reported the double whammy of both parental maltreatment and bullying.
Here’s how the researchers explained their results:
“When being bullied was directly compared with maltreatment in childhood, being bullied by peers had more adverse effects on early or young adult overall mental health.
The insufficiency of resources for bullying compared with those for family maltreatment requires attention.
It is important for schools, health services, and other agencies to coordinate their responses to bullying, and research is needed to assess such interagency policies and processes.“
How the study was conducted
This was the first study of it’s kind. No study of the long-term impacts of childhood bullying had ever been attempted before.
The researchers found that the trauma residue from childhood bullying is still detectable 40 years later.
These findings were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, come from the British National Child Development Study which includes 7,771 children who were born during one week in 1958 (Takizawa et al., 2014).
When they were 7 and 11-years-old, their parents were asked whether or not they were being bullied.
Of the children in the study, 28% were bullied occasionally and 15% were bullied on a regular basis
The children were then followed up… until they were 50-years-old!
The study’s lead authors, Dr. Ryu Takizawa, explained the findings:
“Our study shows that the effects of bullying are still visible nearly four decades later.
The impact of bullying is persistent and pervasive, with health, social and economic consequences lasting well into adulthood.”
The effects of being bullied were seen across a wide range of psychological measures, including:
A higher risk of for clinical depression, generalized anxiety and suicidal ideation.
impaired cognitive functioning.
Lower overall quality of life, and relationships.
Lower life overall life satisfaction.
Less likely to be in an intimate relationship.
The study was sensitive to data on family of origin characteristics (wealth, educational levels, degree of involvement with the child, etc.) IQ, as well as cataloguing any apparent behavioral and emotional problems.
The study’s senior author, Professor Louise Arseneault, said something important about cultural memes concerning bullying:
“We need to move away from any perception that bullying is just an inevitable part of growing-up.
Teachers, parents and policy-makers should be aware that what happens in the school playground can have long-term repercussions for children.
Programmes to stop bullying are extremely important, but we also need to focus our efforts on early intervention to prevent potential problems persisting into adolescence and adulthood.”
Bullying triples psychosis risk
I suspect that the outsized impact of bullying during adolescence, is that the brain is undergoing rapid development, rendering the developing brain and nervous system particularly sensitive to the souls inhabiting their environment, making it even more important to address bullying, as well as parental abuses.
Meanness and cruelty are becoming common place. There is no rationale for bullying, and we need to notice how the guy code fails to socialize the problem.
Stay kind, and Godspeed.
RESEARCH:
Adult mental health consequences of peer bullying and maltreatment in childhood: two cohorts in two countries
Suzet Tanya Lereya, PhD , William E Copeland, PhD, Prof E Jane Costello, PhD, Prof Dieter Wolke, PhD
Open AccessPublished:April 28, 2015DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(15)00165-0
Adult Health Outcomes of Childhood Bullying Victimization: Evidence From a Five-Decade Longitudinal British Birth Cohort
Ryu Takizawa, M.D., Ph.D.,Barbara Maughan, Ph.D., and Louise Arseneault, Ph.D.
Published Online:1 Jul 2014https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.13101401
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