Bullying: it’s not over when it’s over

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Bullies take their toll long after the vulnerable high school years. A new study reported in the journal Psychology in the Schools found that the consequences of social bullying—gossip, rumors, verbal back-stabbing—linger into the victims’ adulthood in the form of depression and anxiety.

The lead researcher, Allison Dempsey, says she was set on her course to study bullying by her home town experience. She graduated from Columbine High School in Littleton, Col., in 1998, the year before the 1999 shootings there that killed 12 students, a teacher, and the two shooters, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. The two boys who committed the murders, it was later reported, were shunned by the school’s cliques.

University of Florida researchers studied 210 college students and found a relationship between being bullied in adolescence and later depression and anxiety in young adulthood. “Even though people are outside of high school, the memories of these experiences continue to be associated with depression and social anxiety,” said Dempsey,. “It was interesting to see these relationships still continue to exist even though they are in early adulthood now and in a completely different setting.”

The researchers found no gender differences in social bullying and later mental health consequences. And, in a surprising result, they found that for many young adults, a network of friends didn’t necessarily protect them from depression and anxiety. Some children, co-author Eric Storch, professor of psychiatry at the University of Florida, said in the press release, “…take the words and abuse more to heart and begin to believe what’s being said about them.’ Even if they have a supportive circle of friends.

The full journal article requires payment, but you can read the abstract, or find further details in the university’s press release.

The problem is widespread. A story in the March 7, 2008, Los Angeles Times, ‘Meaner bullying is leading schools to find new tactics,’ reported on how some students, parents, teachers and school administrators are fighting back by reporting bullying incidents and trying to change school culture.

--Susan Brink

Drawing: Matt Groening