Bullying has greater psychological effect on children than child abuse, study finds
Study finds that UK and US children suffer much more psychologically if they've been pushed around by their peers than if they suffer child abuse
The long-term effects of being bullied by other children are worse than being abused by an adult, new research shows.
Among a large group of children in England, those who were bullied were 60 per cent more likely to have mental health problems as adults than were those who suffered physical, emotional or sexual abuse. And among a large group of children in the US, the risk of mental health problems was nearly four times greater for victims of bullying than for victims of child abuse.
The findings, published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry, underscore the need to take bullying more seriously as a public health problem.
"Being bullied has similar and in some cases worse long-term adverse effects on young adults' mental health than being maltreated," the study authors wrote. "Governmental efforts have focused almost exclusively on public policy to address family maltreatment; much less attention and resources has [sic] been paid to bullying. This imbalance requires attention."
Previous studies have shown that children who are abused by adults or victimised by their peers grow up to suffer higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal tendencies, among other problems. Both are bad, but the researchers wanted to know which was worse.
So they mined two large, long-term studies involving thousands of children. Both studies included data about child abuse and bullying.