Bullying

bully

© istockPhoto

A new study shows that it’s not just the victims of bullying that experience long-term consequences; bullies themselves are also at risk of mental health issues later in life.

 
Professor William E. Copeland of Duke University Medical Center and Professor Dieter Wolke of the University of Warwick led a team in examining whether bullying in childhood predicts psychiatric problems and suicidality in young adulthood. While some still view bullying as a harmless rite of passage, research shows that being a victim of bullying increases the risk of adverse outcomes to mental health.

This study, published in Online First by JAMA Psychiatry, looked beyond the victims of bullying and also investigated the impact on the bullies themselves, and those who fall into both categories.

Professor Wolke summarised the outcome of the study, “It is clear that those involved in bullying are at an increased risk for emotional disorders in later life. It is those in the middle of the chain, who are both bullies and victims, who are at the highest risk of suicide.”

The results indicate a clear pattern in the three categories that highlights the extent of the influence that childhood bullying can have.

Victims of bullying displayed a higher prevalence of agoraphobia, general anxiety and panic disorder in young adulthood, whereas bullies showed a tendency to develop an antisocial personality disorder. Those who were both bullies and victims were significantly more likely to suffer from depression, panic disorder, agoraphobia (in females only) and suicidal tendencies (in males only).

Professor Wolke explained “Bullying simply cannot be seen as a harmless, inevitable part of growing up. Bullying can be easily assessed and monitored by health professionals and school personnel, and effective interventions that reduce victimization are already available.

“Understanding the impact of bullying on both the individual, whether victim or perpetrator, and on society as a whole, means we must promote such interventions to help reduce human suffering and provide a safer environment for children to grow up in.”

The research assessed 1,420 participants four to six times between the ages of 9 and 16 years and accounted for the influence of childhood psychiatric problems and family hardships.

Full article available at: http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1654916

red heart in the hands

iStock photo

Kindness key to happiness and acceptance for children

 
Children who make an effort to perform acts of kindness are happier and experience greater acceptance from their peers, suggests new research from the University of British Columbia and the University of California, Riverside.

Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, a professor in UBC’s Faculty of Education, and co-author Kristin Layous, of the University of California, Riverside, say that increasing peer acceptance is key to preventing bullying.

In the study, published today by PLOS ONE, researchers examined how to boost happiness in students aged 9 to 11 years. Four hundred students from Vancouver elementary schools were asked to report on their happiness and to identify which of their classmates they would like to work with on school activities. Half of the students were asked by their teachers to perform acts of kindness – like sharing their lunch or giving their mom a hug when she felt stressed – and half were asked to keep track of pleasant places they visited – like the playground or a grandparent’s house.

After four weeks, the students again reported on their happiness and identified classmates they would like to work with. While both groups said they were happier, kids that had performed acts of kindness selected higher numbers of classmates to work with on school activities.

“We show that kindness has some real benefits for the personal happiness of children but also for the classroom community,” says Schonert-Reichl, also a researcher with the Human Early Learning Partnership at UBC.

According to Schonert-Reichl, bullying tends to increase in Grades 4 and 5. By simply asking students to think about how they can act kindly to those around them, “teachers can create a sense of connectedness in the classroom and reduce the likelihood of bullying.”

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of British Columbia

A problem shared is a problem halved

mean girls

istockphoto

The experience of being bullied is particularly detrimental to the psychological health of school girls who don’t have social support from either adults or peers, according to a new study by Dr. Martin Guhn and colleagues from the University of British Columbia in Canada. In contrast, social support from adults or peers (or both) appears to lessen the negative consequences of bullying in this group, namely anxiety and depression. The work is published online in Springer’s Journal of Happiness Studies.

Guhn and his team looked at whether the combination of high levels of bullying and low levels of adult as well as peer support have a multiplicative negative effect on children’s well-being. [continue reading…]

mean girls

istockphoto

On Nov. 11, a 10-year-old girl called a “slut” by her classmates in Illinois, committed suicide.

By eighth grade, girls have already started to monitor the sexual conduct of other girls, according to researchers, and 70 percent of students have experienced some kind of non-physical sexual harassment, including sexual rumor spreading, also known as “slut bashing.”

However, girls and women who are labeled sluts may not even be sexually active, according to Dr. Maureen McHugh, professor of psychology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
McHugh has been researching “slut bashing” in relation to the double standard of sexuality. [continue reading…]