Future of children bullied at school

It is now known that children who are bullied at school are more likely than others to experience serious psychological problems later in life. Here is one of many studies that have confirmed supported this conclusion.

In a study conducted in Finland (Roland et al, 2009) 2,713 schoolboys aged 8 years were identified on the basis of reports from teachers and parents and the children themselves as being bullied at school. It was subsequently possible to compare their mental health with that of other people when each of them enrolled for compulsory national service 10 to 15 years later and completed a required psychiatric examination. The rejection rate for these bullied boys was approximately 3 times greater than others who had not been bullied at school. Rejection on psychiatric grounds included disorders described as anxiety, depression, anti-social personality, substance abuse, and psychoticism.

Clearly children who are being bullied need help.

References

Ronning et al, J.A., Sourander, A., Kumpulainen, K., Tamminen, T., Niemela, S., Moilanen, I., Helenius, H., Piha,J. & Almqvist, F. (2009). Cross-informant agreement about bullying and victimization among eight year olds: Whose information best predicts psychiatric caseness 10-15 years later ? Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, 44(1), 15-22.