Bullying Linked to Long-Term Outcomes Similar to Child Abuse

Can being bullied by peers put children at equally as great of risk for mental health problems later in life as being physically, sexually or emotionally abused by adults? Yes, a recent study has found. In fact, the findings suggest that children who are bullied may be at even greater risk. 

Previous research has linked both bullying and childhood abuse to various adverse mental health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide. However, in the case of bullying especially, it has been less clear if these poor outcomes are attributable to having been both maltreated and bullied, to previous maltreatment only, or if they exist independent of maltreatment. In other words, is bullying alone enough to put children at risk of developing future mental health problems?

To help answer this question, researchers at Warwick and Duke universities in the UK analyzed data from two groups of people that had been tracked throughout childhood and into young adulthood. 4026 children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children in the United Kingdom, and 1420 children from the Great Smoky Mountain Study in the United States were included in the study.

In the UK cohort, children were assessed for maltreatment between the ages of 8 weeks and 8.6 years based on reports from their mothers. Then, on three occasions between the ages of 8 and 13, the children were asked to report themselves how frequently they had been bullied. In the US cohort, the children and their parents were interviewed annually between the ages of 9 and 16, and asked to report on the occurrence of both maltreatment and bullying. In both samples, the researchers followed up on participants in young adulthood, between the ages of 18 and 25. They were assessed for depression, anxiety, self harm and suicidal thoughts.

So what did they find? In both cohorts, children who were both maltreated and bullied were at greater risk for depression, anxiety, and overall mental health problems, compared to children who were neither maltreated or bullied. In the UK sample, they were also at greater risk for self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

Once family hardship was taken into account, children who were maltreated only were at no greater risk for mental health problems in young adulthood, compared to children who were neither maltreated or bullied, in the UK sample. However, in the US sample, children who were maltreated only were four times more likely to suffer from depression later in life.

Perhaps most surprising were the findings comparing children who were maltreated only to children who were bullied only. In both cohorts, children who were bullied but not maltreated were significantly more likely to experience overall mental health problems, than children who were maltreated but not bullied.

For example, in the UK sample, children who were bullied were one and a half times more likely than children who were maltreated to experience overall mental health problems in young adulthood. In the US sample, the findings were even more striking, with the bullied children at almost four times greater risk.

Likewise, in the US sample, children who were bullied only were nearly five times more likely to suffer from anxiety in young adulthood, compared to children who were maltreated but not bullied. In the UK cohort, the children who were bullied only were also at greater risk of self-harm and suicidal thoughts than children who were maltreated only.

So what does this all go to say? Well, first and foremost, it seems that being bullied by peers in childhood may actually be associated with worse long-term mental health outcomes than being maltreated by adults. This certainly stands in contrast to long-held societal beliefs that bullying is not that big of a deal, and is nothing more than a rite of passage for children.

Second of all, the findings suggest that we should at least be equally concerned about the abuse kids experience at the hands of other children, as we are about abuse delivered at the hands of adults.

           
Yet, if we were to survey the population at large and ask them which they think is more serious, maltreatment or bullying, I would hazard to guess that most people would indicate the former. Bullying has been written off as a rite of passage for so long, that I imagine very few would even consider maltreatment and bullying to be in the same playing field. The point is not to place bullying and child abuse on a scale and measure which one is worse. It is instead to highlight the lack of recognition bullying has received in our society as a bona fide traumatic event that may have a lasting negative impact on a person’s life.

This lack of recognition is important to address. It may be damaging to children experiencing bullying when they don’t receive the level of support they need because teachers, school administrators, and even parents underestimate how harmful bullying may be to a child’s development. Furthermore, when children who have been bullied grow up to experience mental health problems, they may be reluctant to seek support and accept the role being bullied may have played, due to shame from having been affected by something that people so often write off as “kids just being kids.”

This findings of this study are correlational only. That is, we don’t know if bullying causes mental health problems later in life, or if children who are predisposed to mental health problems are the ones more likely to be bullied. Still though, the findings do indicate that being bullied is a risk factor for mental health problems in young adulthood. 

Children who are victimized by their peers deserve our attention and resources in order to help prevent the development of mental health problems. High profile cases like that of Amanda Todd and Rehteah Parsons have recently pushed bullying into the media spotlight and sparked legislative action, but more still needs to be done. As a society we need to start taking bullying more seriously, in the same way we do other forms of abuse. Children should have the right to grow up free from all forms of violence and abuse. That experienced at the hands of adults, and also that carried out by their peers.

Lereya, S.T., Copeland, W.E., Costello, E.J., Wolke, D. (2015). Adult mental health consequences of peer bullying and maltreatment in childhood: two cohorts in two countries. Lancet Psychiatry, (2), 524-531. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ S2215-0366(15)00165-0


- Kathryn Pierce