Study: The pain of bullying can last into adulthood
Kids don’t easily outgrow the pain of bullying, according to a new study that finds that people bullied as kids are less mentally healthy as adults. …
“To my surprise at least, there were some very strong long-term effects on their risk for depression, anxiety, suicidality, a whole host of outcomes that we know just wreak havoc on adult lives,” said study researcher William Copeland, a clinical psychologist at Duke University Medical Center.
Previous studies have found that both bullies and their victims are at higher risk for mental health problems and other struggles in childhood. One study, presented in 2010 at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, found that bullies were at higher risk of substance abuse, depression, anxiety and hostility than non-bullies.
For bully victims, being targeted can result in increased suicide risk, depression, poor school performance and low self-esteem. But most studies on the effects of bullying focus on the childhood period.
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Bullies don’t just happen. They are made.
Bullies are being bullied.
John the Libertarian on February 21, 2013 at 10:39 PM
Bullies tend to be more hostile?
You could just knock me over with a feather.
sharrukin on February 21, 2013 at 10:44 PM
The best defense for bullying is to teach the bullied to stand up and fight back. Cowering to a teacher only tells the bully that his prey has no spine.
nobar on February 21, 2013 at 10:44 PM
Let’s make sure “bullying” is properly defined. We’re creating a new class of victims that excuse their behaviors because they were called ugly this one time in 3rd grade.
ButterflyDragon on February 21, 2013 at 10:48 PM
Isn’t this a sort of “duh”? No one EVER forgets being hurt (especially if it was an ongoing pain). They only learn to live with it if they can.
Warner Todd Huston on February 21, 2013 at 10:49 PM
So the republican party will suffer long term effects?
Mimzey on February 21, 2013 at 10:58 PM
There’s a pill for that.
wolly4321 on February 21, 2013 at 11:07 PM
Sure it does. This requires a study?
Now has the left yet conducted a study informing them that bullying doesn’t only happen to gays or one of their other protected-classes du jour? Oh that’s right, they don’t care.
Gingotts on February 21, 2013 at 11:20 PM
I’ve been trying to get my masseuse to bully me in German, but her family’s neighborhood was flattened by the RAF and she’s too damned sensitive.
Seth Halpern on February 22, 2013 at 12:39 AM
I was once bullied into joining a labor union … does that count?
kregg on February 22, 2013 at 5:32 AM
I love how conservatives poo poo these studies and longs for an era when people just swallowed their hurts and pains and went on with their lives. All the while ignoring that incidences of domestic violence against spouses and children were much higher back when we were in an era where people were encouraged not to articulate and express their feelings and to shove them down. Shoving them down only meant that they were more likely to explode out in private, with family members experiencing the brunt and thus a cycle of violence is born.
libfreeordie on February 22, 2013 at 6:35 AM
I was bullied until I punched my bully in the face. As the coward ran, I chased him down and hurled him against the lockers. If my kids were to do that today, they would get suspended. We need to let these kids work it out. We need to encourage kids to do the one thing that stops bullying: fight back.
Odysseus on February 22, 2013 at 6:59 AM
Or just stand up to a Bully. 9 times out of 10, Bullyies back down when challenged. Even if they hit you out of that 1 time, they will leave you alone afterward and pick on someone who doesn’t stand up to them.
BigGator5 on February 22, 2013 at 7:19 AM
Because, if I had the money, I bet I can get a study done saying Bullying is GOOD FOR YOU.
BigGator5 on February 22, 2013 at 7:29 AM
I remember in 6th or 7th grade in Catholic school, this little punk would continually mock and tease chubby Billy Diemer until one day Billy had enough and beat the snot out of the punk while everyone cheered. Unfortunately the punk’s family were a big deal Catholic family and the nuns suspended Billy. When Billy came back, he was quite the hero and the punk never did tease anyone else.
AcidReflux on February 22, 2013 at 7:33 AM
Straw man.
fossten on February 22, 2013 at 7:36 AM
I poo poo these studies because they waste money on what everyone already knows. This article told me absolutely nothing new.
I will sum it up as a conservative: There are good people and their are bad people. Good people should vigorously defend themselves against bad people or bad people will keep being bad.
gator70 on February 22, 2013 at 7:42 AM
I agree with fossten who called this out as a strawman. What is “conservative” about “swallowing their hurt”?
As someone who was bullied incessantly as a kid, I agree with the others that the best response is to fight back – even if you get the snot kicked out of you, it shows other potential bullies that you won’t go down easily without a fight.
That type of response shows individual responsibility and initiative, which I believe are conservative principles; while running to the teacher and asking for special protection would be a more “libfreeordie” approach to bullying.
furytrader on February 22, 2013 at 7:58 AM
Speaking of bullying.
Did you know that horses, cows, dogs, cats, turkeys (wild turkeys are in my yard all the time & I’ve observed their behavior now for years) all practice BULLYING as a form of social control?
Just like humans do.
We are having a horrendous problem with bullying in our middle screwl grades where I teach. I’m HS so I don’t really see these kids.
But it’s caused 2 girls to go to hospitals bcs of it (psych trauma).
There is no more calling each other out behind the screwl yard & beating the snot out of anybody anymore.
They tell the adults in charge. The Admins. And these 2 guys bully me all the time!
It takes a combination of all of these things to help kids grow up & keep adults in line.
I was bullied in the 8th grade really terribly. I finally had enough one day & grabbed on of the girls by the hair & beat her head repeatedly into the lockers, screaming like a psycho the whole time.
They never effed with me after that.
Kids need to be able to feel they can physically defend themselves.
We’ve taken that out of them with these slogans & crappy feel good phrases which do nothing.
There was no study needed for this.
I see it in the animal kingdom every day of my life.
Badger40 on February 22, 2013 at 8:11 AM
You don’t swallow the pain & shove it down. You get together with your other bullied friends if needs be & beat the living $hit out of the person who is tormenting you all.
This is ultimately how bullies are sometimes dealt with.
Notice a dog shows it’s teeth to another as a sign of aggression?
A horse bites & runs the hell out of another horse to show it its place in the herd?
Cows do this too.
You fight back. We are animals. Those with a way to work against our instincts but sometimes it is the instincts we must act with.
You’re a fracking tool. Society cannot protect an individual from their own willingness to remain weak. Not forever.
Badger40 on February 22, 2013 at 8:15 AM
Yeah, back in the day when you learned that life sometimes hurts and you have to live with it, rather than believing that life should be pain-free. Sorry, lib, if somebody promised you a rose garden, they lied to you.
Oh, this is just bullfeces. Let me guess, you thought Pleasantville was a documentary?
This study is baloney, too, because the only people for whom the “pain of bullying” lasts into adulthood are that very small minority who were actually tortured (not the liberal definition), and all those who just can’t grow up and understand that life goes on and doesn’t really want to stop and wait while you cry on the sidelines.
You deal with a bully in one of three ways: you learn to let it roll off your back, you learn to punch him in the nose, or you run crying to a protector. Real life actually demands all three used in a judicious combination. The libanddie answer is to only use door #3.
That’s the only disagreement I will have with you. (How often does that happen?!?) We are much more than animals. What you see with bullies is that they want to act like animals – and expect others to respond like animals. (Preferrably like libanddie – as sheep.) Yes, they need a walloping once in a while, but the best answer is generally to not lower yourself to their level.
Funny, but this goes back to the “armed society is polite society” argument. What helps a kid deal with bullies is not to protect them, but to teach them to handle it. This will, of necessity, involve them learning how to fight. When a large enough number of the kids know how to fight and work to protect those incapable of fighting, the bully will self-destruct or learn to not act like a bully. In other words, an armed society becomes a polite society.
GWB on February 22, 2013 at 9:13 AM