Adult Depression Often Linked to Teen Bullying

[humble3d]

Adult Depression Often Linked to Teen Bullying

TEHRAN (FNA)- Bullying in teenage years is strongly associated with depression later on in life, suggested a new research.

Depression is a major public health problem with high economic and societal costs. There is a rapid increase in depression from childhood to adulthood and one contributing factor could be bullying by peers. But the link between bullying at school and depression in adulthood is still unclear due to limitations in previous research.

So a team of scientists, led by Lucy Bowes at the University of Oxford, carried out one of the largest studies on the association between bullying by peers in teenage years and depression in early adulthood.

They undertook a longitudinal observational study that examined the relationship between bullying at 13 years and depression at 18 years.

They analysed bullying and depression data on 3,898 participants in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a UK community based birth cohort.

The participants completed a self-report questionnaire at 13 years about bullying and at 18 years completed an assessment that identified individuals who met internationally agreed criteria for depressive illness.

Of the 683 teenagers who reported frequent bullying at more than once a week at 13 years, 14.8% were depressed at 18 years. And of the 1446 teenagers who had some bullying of 1-3 times over six months at 13 years, 7.1% were depressed at 18 years.

Only 5.5% of teenagers who did not experience bullying were depressed at 18 years.

Around 10.1% of frequently bullied teenagers experienced depression for more than two years, compared with 4.1% from the non-bullied group.

Overall, 2668 participants had data on bullying and depression as well as other factors that may have caused depression such as previous bullying in childhood, mental and behavioral problems, family set up and stressful life events.

When these factors were taken into account, frequently bullied teenagers still had around a twofold increase in odds of depression compared with those who did not experience bullying. This association was the same for both males and females.

The most common type of bullying was name calling -- 36% experienced this, while 23% had belongings taken.

Most teenagers never told a teacher (41%-74%) or a parent (24%-51%), but up to 75% told an adult about physical bullying such as being hit or beaten up.

If this were a causal relationship up to 30% of depression in early adulthood could be attributable to bullying in teenage years, explain the authors, adding that bullying could make a substantial contribution to the overall burden of depression.

While this is an observational study and no definitive conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect, they say that interventions to reduce bullying in schools could reduce depression in later life.

In an accompanying editorial, Maria M Ttofi from the University of Cambridge writes that this study has clear anti bullying messages that should be endorsed by parents, schools and practitioners. She also calls for more research to establish the causal links between bullying and depression, and to drive specific interventions to reduce victimization.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940314000073

[Holmes]

I think bullying does have an affect in early adulthood why would it not. If they did more to stop or reduce bullying and can eliminate it altogether we can find ourselves with alot less school shootings I believe. People have no idea how much bullying in school affects the mental health of people in general it doesnt take a study to figure it out but studies do help dig deeper into the problem. The old tricks dont work ignoring the bullies dont work it adds additional determination to the bullies. People arent stupid and unfortunately this goes for bullies to they know if you sit there and dont answer your trying to ignore them and they know they and they just get worse with the bullying. The question is what makes bullies want to be bullies whats the personality of a bully like I remember a thread that talked about bullies and there personalities If I find it Ill post it. What makes a bully is not peers at school its whats happening at home and what has happened at home or in the past to the bully. The thread is gone here is the link:

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/climate_desk/2014/02/internet_troll_personality_study_machiavellianism_narcissism_psychopathy.html

What its like to be a troll bully..