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Home Page > Psychological Dangers > Bullying

Bullying

Long-term consequences playground-bullying.jpg

Bullying is much more than just a period of profound misery caused by unjust persecution, abuse and humiliation.  The resulting psychological damage can extend well into adulthood, with a highly detrimental effect on a person's ability to establish satisfying relationships and adequate parental skills.

Andrea Schreier Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of Warwick, points out that "A major implication is that chronic or severe peer victimisation has non-trivial, adverse, long-term consequences.  Recent studies have demonstrated an association between traumatic events such as abuse in childhood and psychosis [a mental illness that markedly interferes with a person's capacity to meet life's everyday demands.  Symptoms can include seeing, hearing, smelling, or tasting things that are not there; paranoia; and delusional thoughts].

Prof Dieter Wolke told the 2009 annual meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists " Bullying in school can be divided into two types: overt bullying, including punching, kicking and physical intimidation; and relational bullying, such as spreading rumours and cyber-bullying (see below), which can lead to the victims being ostracised.  The more severe the victimisation, the higher the likelihood of having psychotic symptoms.  If you are a victim of bullying you have twice the risk of psychotic symptoms.  But if you are bullied over a long time, your risk quadruples, and if you experience both overt and relational bullying, your risk increases 4.6 times.  There is no higher a predictor of psychosis than bullying ".  Prof Wolke believes that being continually bullied could lead to changes in the brain as a result of over-reaction to stress and continual increase in the release of the stress hormone cortisol.

What parents can do

Confront -  Record - Inform.


  • Confront the bully.  Make sure that the bully, parents and teachers are all mutually aware of what has been going on.
  • Record the precise details of  the event(s) -  what happened, when, where, witnesses, action taken, responses obtained including proposals for prevention and future monitoring.
  • Inform other parties involved (school, perpetrator(s), other parents etc), of all relevant incidents.
  • Listen to your child so that (s)he feels heard and supported.  Talk matters through and be ready to pay heed to any suggestions made.  It is vitally important that the victim is not made to feel responsible.  It is equally important that no action is taken that may be seen as "surrender".

       

                Links: Kidscape.  www.kidscape.org.uk  (Information, booklets)
                     Bullying UK. www.bullying.co.uk
                          Anti-bullying Campaign. www.antibullyingcampaign.ie 
 
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