Bully/victims: a longitudinal, population-based cohort study of their mental health

Abstract

It has been suggested that those who both bully and are victims of bullying (bully/victims) are at the highest risk for adverse mental health outcomes. However, unknown is whether most bully/victims were bullies or victims first and whether being a bully/victim is more detrimental to mental health than being a victim. 4101 children were prospectively studied from birth and structured interviews and questionnaires were used to assess bullying involvement at 10 years (elementary school) and 13 years of age (secondary school). Mental health (anxiety, depression, psychotic experiences) was assessed at 18 years. Most bully/victims at age 13 (n = 233) had already been victims at primary school (pure victims: n = 97, 41.6% or bully/victims: n = 47; 20.2%). Very few of the bully/victims at 13 years had been pure bullies previously (n = 7, 3%). After adjusting for a wide range of confounders, both bully/victims and pure victims, whether stable or not from primary to secondary school, were at increased risk of mental health problems at 18 years of age. In conclusion, children who are bully/victims at secondary school were most likely to have been already bully/victims or victims at primary school. Children who are involved in bullying behaviour as either bully/victims or victims at either primary or secondary school are at increased risk for mental health problems in late adolescence regardless of the stability of victimisation.Clinicians should consider any victimisation as a risk factor for mental health problems.

Childhood trajectories of peer victimization and prediction of mental health outcomes in midadolescence: a longitudinal population-based study

“…Those children were at greater risk of debilitating depressive/dysthymic symptoms or anxiety and of suicidality in adolescence than less severely victimized children, even after we accounted for a plethora of confounders assessed throughout childhood. Thus, our results, along with those of many other studies, 4,5,8,16,34 suggest that severe peer victimization may contribute to the development of mental health problems in adolescence. Therefore, it is important to prevent severe victimization early in the lifespan.…”

“…It has been shown that a substantial proportion of those who have been victimized have also bullied others. 7,16 Because perpetrators tend to display higher levels of aggression 7 and conduct problems, 17 we tested whether victimization increased the risk of symptoms of mental illness above and beyond the perpetration of victimization.…”

Teen aesthetic surgery may eliminate bullying

“…There is now ample evidence that peer victimization is a childhood trauma that negatively affects psychological function both concurrently and longitudinally [38][39][40][41][42] .…”

Transdiagnostic heterogeneity, hierarchical dimensional models, and societal, cultural, and individual differences in the developmental understanding of psychopathology

“…Both sexual abuse and suicidal behavior are clearly of great concern in their own right, over and above their possible associations with particular diagnostic categories. As another example from this issue of ECAP, Lereya et al [10] found that early bullying and victimization were associated with various mental health problems at age 18. Articles by Comasco et al and Ortuno-Sierra et al provide additional examples of transdiagnostic approaches.…”