Concurrent and Longitudinal Contribution of Exposure to Bullying in Childhood to Mental Health

Abstract

This study is the largest to date to characterize the contribution of exposure to bullying in childhood to mental health using a twin differences design and multi-informant, multiscale data. Stringent evidence of the direct detrimental contribution of exposure to bullying in childhood to mental health is provided. Findings also suggest that childhood exposure to bullying may partly be viewed as a symptom of preexisting vulnerabilities. Finally, the dissipation of effects over time for many outcomes highlights the potential for resilience in children who were bullied. In addition to programs that aim to reduce exposure to bullying, interventions may benefit from addressing preexisting vulnerabilities and focus on resilience.

Disentangling the mental health impact of childhood abuse and neglect: A replication and extension study in a Brazilian sample of high-risk youth

“…Of interest, mediation effects were confined to self-report internalizing problems, and did not extend to externalizing problems. This is in line with the broader literature on bullying and peer victimization, which has documented a stronger effect on internalizing (vs externalizing) problems, including depression, anxiety and suicide risk, even after controlling for experiences of childhood maltreatment (Lereya, Copeland, Costello, & Wolke, 2015;Reijntjes, Kamphuis, Prinzie, & Telch, 2010) and applying stringent causal inference methods (Singham et al, 2017). Our findings are also consistent with previous studies showing that peer victimization mediates the association between childhood maltreatment and internalizing symptoms (e.g.…”

Asociación entre los estados de ánimo negativo, el consumo de sustancias psicoactivas y el bullying en adolescentes escolarizados

“…El estado de ánimo negativo y la mala salud mental en la etapa adolescente se han asociado con el bullying (Mello et al, 2017;Moore et al, 2017;Singham et al, 2017), fenómeno definido como el maltrato o abuso que se da en contexto escolar entre estudiantes. La población adolescente escolarizada en España que ha sufrido bullying presenta peores puntuaciones en la escala de salud mental Strengthts and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (Garcia-Continente, Pérez-Giménez, Espelt y Nebot Adell, 2013;Mangot-Sala et al, 2018).…”

“…El estado de ánimo negativo se ha asociado a sufrir bullying. Estos resultados son consistentes con otras publicaciones (Bond, Carlin, Thomas, Rubin y Patton, 2001;Gaete et al, 2017;Garcia-Continente et al, 2013;Mangot-Sala et al, 2018;Mello et al, 2017;Monteagudo et al, 2013;Singham et al, 2017) y algún estudio longitudinal (Bond et al, 2001), que muestran que haber sufrido bullying aumenta la ansiedad y la sintomatología depresiva, o los comportamientos autodestructivos y el riesgo de suicidio en esta población. La causalidad entre el bullying y el estado de ánimo negativo tampoco está clara, ya que el consumo de sustancias podría comportarse como una variable intermedia entre sufrir bullying y el estado de ánimo negativo (Livingston et al, 2018).…”

Heritability of Bullying and Victimization in Children and Adolescents: Moderation by the KiVa Antibullying Program

“…Bullying affects numerous children worldwide: a large-scale meta-analysis (Modecki, Minchin, Harbaugh, Guerra, & Runions, 2014) estimated that~35% of children are involved in bullying either as victims or perpetrators, with some variation due to definitions or cultural context (Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017;Modecki et al, 2014). In addition, involvement in bullying is associated with a multitude of adverse outcomes for both victims and perpetrators of bullying (Bilodeau et al, 2018;Singham et al, 2017;Ttofi, Farrington, & Lösel, 2012).…”