Bullied Children Suffer Lasting, Psychological Effects into Adulthood

Bullying doesn't teach children life lessons or make them stronger. Instead, bullied children grow into adults who are at increased risk of developing anxiety disorders, depression and suicidal thoughts. A new study conducted by researchers at Duke Medicine used 20 years of data to find out the lasting impacts of bullying on children.

The findings, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, tapped a population-based sample of 1,420 children ages 9, 11 and 13 from 11 different counties in North Carolina. Initially enrolled in 1993, the children and their parents or caregivers were interviewed annually by researchers until the children turned 16. They were then interviewed periodically afterward.

At each session until the age of 16, both the child and caregiver were asked whether the child had been bullied or teased, or had bulled or teased others in the three months prior to the interview. Researchers found that a total of 421 participants (26 percent of the children) reported being bullied at least once. Another 887 said that they never encountered bullying while 200 said that they engaged in bullying others. Both boys and girls reported incidents at around the same rate.

Of the original 1,420 children, more than 1,270 were followed into adulthood. Questions for these adults included queries about their psychological health.

The results showed that bullying has an immense impact on a person's life. Those who had said that they had been bullied, plus those who said that they had both bullied and been bullied, were at a higher risk for psychiatric disorders compared with those with no history of being bullied. These disorders included depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, generalized anxiety, panic disorder and agoraphobia. Those who had also bullied others were also at an increased risk for antisocial personality disorder.

Researchers don't plan to stop with these findings, though. They hope to continue their analysis to explore the role of sexual orientation in both bullying and victimization.

"Bullying, which we tend to think of as a normal and not terribly important part of childhood, turns out to have the potential for very serious consequences for children, adolescents and adults," said senior author E. Jane Costello in a press release.