Bullying experienced as a teenager may be responsible for a third of all cases of adult depression, according to new research.
Although it is impossible to claim that the bullying led directly to the development of depression, psychologists at Oxford University say they strongly suspect a “causal relationship.”
A new study, led by psychologist Lucy Bowes, used information from the United Kingdom’s Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, which surveyed kids at age 13 with specific questions about bullying, including whether they’d experienced physical violence, threats, lies, rumours and exclusion.
Then at 18, the same respondents were asked whether they showed any of the common symptoms of clinical depression.
About 15 per cent of those who had been bullied as teenagers showed symptoms opposed to five per cent of people who had not.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal, concludes that bullying tripled the risk of developing depression as an adult.
“We found that kids who reported that they were frequently bullied at 13 were twice as likely to report being clinically depressed at 18,” says Lucy Bowes.
The survey, which included responses from 3700 families, also showed a startling disparity between the experience of the bullied teens and parental awareness at home.
A total 1200 teens reported bullying but only 229 mothers said their children were frequently bullied.
The study highlights the long-term dangers of bullying and the need to stop it where it starts, Bowes said. “We know that parents’ involvement is really important, and we need to design interventions that are able to bridge the gap between the home and school life,” she says.
