25% of students are bullied at school
95% of students are bulled more than once

A new study just released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found that there is compelling evidence that young people who indulge in bullying at school go on to participate in further anti-social behaviour as they get older. This includes taking drugs, criminal acts and violent tendencies.

“Those who bullied in adolescence were three to four times more likely to be involved in anti-social behaviour and physical violence by their early 20s,” Dr. Lodge said.

“It seems that once they’re on this trajectory or pathway, it’s something that stays with them into adulthood.”

On the other hand, young people who have been victims of bullying are more likely to suffer from depression, higher absenteeism, lower academic achievement, physical and somatic symptoms, anxiety and depression, social dysfunction, and alcohol abuse in later life.

“What we found with the victims is that once they were established in this role, abuse was likely to continue,” Dr. Jodie Lodge said.

“They also experienced a number of social adjustment problems during adolescence and by their early 20s, were more likely to have higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress.”

Adolescent psychologist and Generation Next speaker, Dr Michael Carr-Gregg said “we know bullying has been linked with self-harm and attempts at suicide so it’s a very, very serious issue and we need to address it.”

In Australia, there is currently no agreed definition for bullying; however, the most commonly cited definition is the ‘repeated oppression, psychological or physical harm, of a less powerful person by a more powerful person or group of persons’ (DEST 2006).

Bullying often occurs because of differences between the bullies and the victims, such as culture, ethnicity, age, ability or disability, religion, body size and physical appearance, personality, sexual orientation, and economic status (Rigby 2009).

The researchers found that bullying differs between males and females; both engaged in verbal abuse and insults with boys taking it to a physical level by becoming physically violent while girls tended to operate on a more indirect/covert psychological and emotional level, through social isolation and smear campaigns (texting, SMS and cyber bullying).
 
Dr. Lodge, who presented the findings at a conference recently, said the study followed 1,000 young people at 3 points in their lives; when they were 12 years old, again at 13 years of age and finally once more when they had entered adult life at the age of 23 years old.

She concluded that bullies tended to perform poorly academically and were more likely to drop-out of school, while both bullies and victims suffered academic and social problems and generally had fewer friends.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: Australian Institute of Family Studies