TUESDAY, Dec. 10, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Bullied teens are more likely to develop mental health problems, and people with mental health problems are also more likely to become bullies, researchers report.
Even though many studies have shown that being bullied can leave mental scars, “no studies to date” have tested the notion that mental health issues might also help drive bullying, explained study author Marine Azevedo Da Silva. She’s a postdoctoral researcher in Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, in New York City.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data from 13,200 U.S. youth, aged 12 to 17, and found that:
79% said they’d never bullied others,
11% said they’d bullied others over a year ago,
10% said they’d bullied others in the past year,
16% said they’d bullied others over a month ago,
5% said they’d bullied others in the past month.
In other words, the link between mental health issues and bullying “is likely to be bidirectional,” Azevedo Da Silva said in a school news release.
According to study senior author Dr. Silvia Martins, the findings suggest that efforts to stem bullying “should consider how to take into account and handle negative feelings and mental health problems” of young perpetrators. Martins directs the Substance Abuse Epidemiology Unit at Mailman.
It’s estimated that between 18% and 31% of U.S. youth are involved in bullying, the researchers noted.
The study was published recently in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
More information
The American Academy of Pediatrics has more on bullying.
SOURCE: Columbia University, news release, Dec. 4, 2019
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