Bullying - Psychological Effects May Linger Into Adulthood, Study Finds

A new study reveals that children who bullied and were victims of bullying are at a high risk of developing psychological conditions like depression, anxiety and panic disorder later in life.

While the psychological effects on both bullies and victims have previously been known, it is still unclear how long the symptoms endure.

But the new study showed that depression and anxiety associated with bullying at school lasted through the subject's mid-20s.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that children who were both bullies and the victims of bullying experienced the most severe psychological effects.

"It's obviously very well established how problematic bullying is short-term," said William Copeland, a clinical psychologist who led the new study at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.

"I was surprised that a decade down the road after they've been victimized, when they've kind of transitioned to adulthood, we would still see these emotional marks for the victims and also the bullies/victims."

The study included research based on 1,420 children from Western North Carolina who were surveyed about their experiences with bullying at a set of different points between ages nine and 16.

The subjects were then assessed at the age of 26 and results revealed that children who were victims of bullying were at a higher risk of developing a gamut of psychiatric conditions.

Six percent of children who were not involved in bullying developed an anxiety disorder later in life as opposed to 24 percent of former victims of bullying and 32 percent of children who were both bullies and victims of bullying.

"It's not surprising that that would be the case, because in part they're reacting to the trauma of being bullied and they also carry with them the experience of having bullied," said Dr. Mark Schuster who was not involved in the study and is the chief general of pediatrics at the Boston Children's Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School.

(SOURCE)