BULLYING & MENTAL HEALTH
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Adolescent Responses to a Bullying Situation
Adolescents with high levels of depression or anxiety are more likely to be bullied, though it is still unclear why this is the case. It is likely that adolescents with existing mental health difficulties may display greater sensitivity to the harmful consequences of bullying. We are taking virtual reality scenarios into schools to understand whether adolescents (aged 11-16) with greater levels of anxiety and depression are more reactive to the effects of negative peer interactions (low-level bullying). Virtual reality allows us to simulate realistic experiences in a safe and controlled way, but also allows us to collect data in ‘real-time’. Our overall aim is to design effective anti-bullying interventions with targeted support for vulnerable youth. Researchers: Lucy Bowes, Julia Badger, Christian D. Petersen, Irena Tetkovic |
A Reciprocal Relationship
Bullying experiences in childhood and adolescence have been consistently associated with an increased risk of poor psychological, physical, educational, and social outcomes across the life course. Young people who are victims of bullying are particularly susceptible to developing internalising symptoms such as depression and anxiety. Specifically, research in our lab has shown that over a quarter of cases of depression at age 18 might be attributable to bullying during early adolescence (Bowes et al., 2015). Yet, the link between bullying and mental health is reciprocal- that is, an individual’s pre-existing mental health can also have an impact on bullying. For example, young people with depression or anxiety are more likely to become victims of bullying and young people with externalizing symptoms such as hyperactivity and aggression are more likely to bully others. Importantly, not all children or adolescents who experience bullying go on to develop negative outcomes, and rather show high levels of resilience. Our goal is to understand what risk and protective factors foster and buffer these associations as it can help us predict resilient outcomes, inform and implement interventions such as KiVa (read about KiVa below) and promote young people’s wellbeing.
Researchers: Lucy Bowes, Carolina Guzman Holst
Bullying experiences in childhood and adolescence have been consistently associated with an increased risk of poor psychological, physical, educational, and social outcomes across the life course. Young people who are victims of bullying are particularly susceptible to developing internalising symptoms such as depression and anxiety. Specifically, research in our lab has shown that over a quarter of cases of depression at age 18 might be attributable to bullying during early adolescence (Bowes et al., 2015). Yet, the link between bullying and mental health is reciprocal- that is, an individual’s pre-existing mental health can also have an impact on bullying. For example, young people with depression or anxiety are more likely to become victims of bullying and young people with externalizing symptoms such as hyperactivity and aggression are more likely to bully others. Importantly, not all children or adolescents who experience bullying go on to develop negative outcomes, and rather show high levels of resilience. Our goal is to understand what risk and protective factors foster and buffer these associations as it can help us predict resilient outcomes, inform and implement interventions such as KiVa (read about KiVa below) and promote young people’s wellbeing.
Researchers: Lucy Bowes, Carolina Guzman Holst
WHICH CHILDREN ARE MOST AT-RISK?
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Predictors of Peer Victimisation
Being bullied by peers is not a random occurrence. For instance, boys generally report higher levels of bullying victimization than girls. In our study, we showed that individual and family level factors during the first five years of life can increase children’s vulnerability to persistent bullying victimization during school years. We showed that children with high levels of aggression and hyperactivity before school entry experienced persistent bullying victimization from 6 to 17 years of age. Awareness of such preexisting vulnerabilities for bullying victimization is important to offer adequate help to children in need, early in their lives. Researchers: Sinziana Oncioiu |
Click on the graph above to see the full video abstract and learn more.
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Bullying in Young Cancer Patients & Survivors
Growing up is hard as is. Growing up with a chronic illness such as cancer may be even more challenging. Though a great majority of young people with cancer survive, the treatments impose many demands on a young patient and their family. Children and adolescents have to miss school, they lose hair, may have big scars, or prosthetic limbs, and also experience invisible disabilities such as cognitive impairment. All of these aspects can contribute to social difficulties or lead to bullying. A recent systematic review identified 23 studies that reported bullying as a challenge for children and adolescents with cancer. Up to 32% of children and adolescents report bullying, which is often verbal and related to the changes in appearance.
In our work with emerging adults with cancer we also heard from individuals who were bullied because of their illness. Such experiences were in some cases described as traumatic.
Cancer can happen to anyone and reducing the stigma associated with it may counter both the burden of illness, as well as bullying associated with this illness.
Researcher: Urška Košir
Growing up is hard as is. Growing up with a chronic illness such as cancer may be even more challenging. Though a great majority of young people with cancer survive, the treatments impose many demands on a young patient and their family. Children and adolescents have to miss school, they lose hair, may have big scars, or prosthetic limbs, and also experience invisible disabilities such as cognitive impairment. All of these aspects can contribute to social difficulties or lead to bullying. A recent systematic review identified 23 studies that reported bullying as a challenge for children and adolescents with cancer. Up to 32% of children and adolescents report bullying, which is often verbal and related to the changes in appearance.
In our work with emerging adults with cancer we also heard from individuals who were bullied because of their illness. Such experiences were in some cases described as traumatic.
Cancer can happen to anyone and reducing the stigma associated with it may counter both the burden of illness, as well as bullying associated with this illness.
Researcher: Urška Košir
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School Bullying Networks
In our research, we examine bullying in schools. We ask school students questions like “Who is mean to you in school?” and “Who do you not like to sit next to?”. Using social network analysis, we structure the bullying connections between students to form a bullying network. We examine how the bullying network changes over time and investigate the antecedents and consequences of bullying. Our research aims to answer questions including “To what extent does bullying occur within or across ethnic and gender groups?”, “How does bullying impact students’ wellbeing?” and “Is ethnically motivated bullying particularly detrimental for students’ wellbeing?” The following figure shows a bullying network for students in Year 7 at a UK school. Each node (square or circle) represents a student and each tie (link between nodes) represents a bullying connection. We find generally low levels of bullying as shown in the figure: there are few bullying connections between students in the Year 7 bullying network. When we zoom in on the bullying cases identified, we see that bullying is more common between students of the same ethnicity and gender. Researcher: Chloe Bracegirdle |
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Social Anxiety and Peer Relationships
We have recently published a systematic review and meta-analysis looking at the relationship between social anxiety and later peer relations (friendship quality, peer acceptance, peer rejection, and peer victimisation), and also peer relations and later social anxiety, in adolescents. From 23 studies, we found a significant association in both directions between social anxiety and peer rejection, peer victimisation, and friendship quality. This suggests that we need to help young people to develop healthy supportive friendships to reduce the risk of developing social anxiety. Similarly, helping teenagers feel more socially confident may protect them from peer difficulties in the future. Researcher: Eleanor Leigh, OxCADAT |
Forest Plot of Correlations between Peer Victimization and Social Anxiety.
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WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
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STAND TOGETHER
Supporting Children’s Social and Emotional Wellbeing Over 25% of UK children report being bullied at least weekly. These children are more likely to experience poor mental health, achieve less academically and are more likely to experience health-related problems into adulthood. As part of the Stand Together Trial, we are collaborating with researchers at Bangor, Warwick, Exeter and Cardiff universities to evaluate the effectiveness of a whole-school anti-bullying and wellbeing programme called KiVa, at reducing bullying rates and improving child mental health and school enjoyment in the UK. KiVa involves scripted lessons, class activities, games, school assemblies and many other strategies and materials to promote wellbeing and reduce bullying. The Stand Together trial is funded by NIHR with generous support from the Rayne Foundation. Find out more: standtogethertrial.weebly.com Researchers: Lucy Bowes, Julia Badger, Naomi Rose, Emily McGann |
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Social Norms in Low & Middle Income Contexts
Social norms appear to influence the prevalence rates of bullying and thus may provide a promising path to intervention. There is a lack of evidence for the effectiveness of anti-bullying programs targeting social norms in low- and middle-income countries. In partnership with UNICEF Indonesia, we carried out a feasibility trial with more than 14,000 students in two different regions in Indonesia. Our results indicated that the extent to which negative behaviours were accepted as social norms by students was associated with how much they would engage in bullying, both as perpetrators and as victims. Further, following the intervention, negative social norms tended to decrease across all 12 schools in our sample and particularly so in schools with more negative social norms prior to the intervention. Researchers: Lucy Bowes, Mirela Zaneva |
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