Child Bullying: Some Victims May Face Worse Emotional Trauma Than Maltreatment

New findings presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in San Diego suggest that bullying adversely affects children even more so than maltreatment.

For the study, researchers at the University of Warwick looked at the long-term mental health issues among victims of bullying who were related to having been maltreated by adults. They analyzed information on over 4,000 people in the UK ALSPAC study and another 1,000 participants from the US Great Smoky Mountain Study.

They examined reports of maltreatment between the ages of 8 weeks and 8.6 years and bullying was studied at the ages of 8, 10 and 13 with the mental health outcomes of the issue determined by18.

"The mental health outcomes we were looking for included anxiety, depression or suicidal tendencies. Our results showed those who were bullied were more likely to suffer from mental health problems than those who were maltreated," lead study author Dieter Wolke, said in a news release. "Being both bullied and maltreated also increased the risk of overall mental health problems, anxiety and depression in both groups."

Researchers found that just about 8.5 percent of the children who participated in the ALSPAC study reported maltreatment. However, 29.7 reported bullying and 7 percent reported maltreatment and bullying, together.

On the other hand, the Great Smoky Mountain Study, reported 15 percent maltreatment, 16.3 percent reported bullying and 9.8 percent with a combination of the two.

"Being bullied is not a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up; it has serious long-term consequences. It is important for schools, health services and other agencies to work together to reduce bullying and the adverse effects related to it," Wolke concluded.

The findings will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in San Diego.