Bullying ‘is worse for children than being abused at home’

BEING bullied as a child by other youngsters has a more serious long-term effect on mental health than being neglected or abused at home, research suggests.

Children who had been bullied by their peers were five times more likely to suffer from anxiety as teenagers than those who had been maltreated by adults at home, a study found.

Lead researcher Dieter Wolke, a psychology professor at Warwick University, said governments currently focus more on tackling family maltreatment than bullying, adding: ‘Since one in three children worldwide report being bullied, and it is clear that bullied children have similar or worse mental health problems later in life to those who are maltreated, more needs to be done to address this imbalance.’

The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children asked 4,026 children in the UK whether they had been bullied at the ages of eight, ten and 13. Their mothers were asked at regular intervals about possible maltreatment experienced by the child at home between the ages of eight weeks and 8.6 years, including if they had been physically or sexually abused. Hitting, shouting and hostile parenting also counted as maltreatment.

Joint research from the US, called the Great Smoky Mountains Study, provided data on maltreatment and bullying experienced by 1,420 American children between the ages of nine and 16. The studies found that when the youngsters’ mental health was assessed when they were 18, those who had been bullied were five times more likely to experience anxiety than those who had been maltreated but had not been bullied. They were also nearly twice as likely to report depression and self-harm.

The findings, published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, were presented yesterday at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in San Diego. Psychologist Jennifer Wild, of Oxford University, said the results ‘highlight the devastating consequences of bullying and the need for zero tolerance programmes.’ ÷ CHILDREN’S author Dame Jacqueline Wilson has said that too much pressure is placed on girls. She said at a Bafta event yesterday: ‘I don’t think I would want to be a girl now because you have to wear cool clothes, you’re expected to be feisty and stand up for yourself, to be cool around boys, bright at school. It’s impossible to be all those things.’