Elsevier

Child Abuse & Neglect

Volume 24, Issue 12, December 2000, Pages 1567-1577
Child Abuse & Neglect

Children involved in bullying at elementary school age: their psychiatric symptoms and deviance in adolescence: An epidemiological sample

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0145-2134(00)00210-6Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective: This study investigated psychiatric symptoms and deviance at the age of 15 years among children involved in bullying at the age of 8 years or at the age of 12 years. Furthermore, the relationships between involvement in bullying at the age of 8 years, concurrent psychiatric deviance, and later psychiatric deviance were studied.

Method: Questionnaires filled in by the parents, teachers and children themselves were used to reveal psychiatric symptoms and deviance.

Results: Children involved in bullying, in particular those who were bully-victims at early elementary school age and those who were victims in their early teens, had more psychiatric symptoms at the age of 15 years. The probability of being deviant at the age of 15 years was higher among children involved in bullying at the age of 8 or 12 years than among non-involved children. When concurrent psychiatric deviance was taken into account, involvement in bullying increased the probability of teacher-defined deviance at the age of 15 years.

Conclusion: Bullying experiences are connected not only to concurrent psychiatric symptoms but also to future psychiatric symptoms. Furthermore, the probability of being deviant in adolescence is increased if the child has been involved in bullying at elementary school age.

Resumen

Objectif: Cette étude s’est penchée sur les symptômes psychiatriques et la déviance chez des jeunes âgés de 15 ans qui avaient eu des démêlés avec d’autres enfants à l’âge de 8 ans ou 12 ans. On a étudié les liens entre ces expériences, (soit en tant que fiers-à-bras ou victimes) et les déviations psychiatriques présentes au temps des démêlés, ainsi que les déviations psychiatriques subséquentes.

Méthode: On a administré des questionnaires aux parents, aux enseignants et aux enfants eux-mêmes afin d’identifier les symptómes et les déviances psychiatriques.

Résultats: Les enfants qui ont connu des expériences d’intimidation, surtout ceux qui en ont été les victimes, que ce soit dès l’école primaire ou au début de l’adolescence, souffraient d’un plus grand nombre de symptômes psychiatriques à l’âge de 15 ans. Les enfants qui s’étaient adonnés à ces mêmes comportements à l’âge de 8 ou 12 ans étaient plus aptes à être déviants que les enfants qui n’avaient jamais connu ces expériences. Lorsque on considérait les comportements déviants, le fait de s’être engagé dans des situations d’intimidation augmentait la probabilité que les jeunes âgés de 15 ans soient déviants, la déviance étant définie par leurs enseignants.

Conclusions: Les expériences d’intimidation s’associent non seulement aux symptômes psychiatriques actuels mais aussi aux symptômes futurs. De plus, la probabilité de devenir déviant durant l’adolescence augmente si l’enfant a connu des expériences d’intimidation durant l’école primaire.

Objetivo: Este estudio investigó la presencia de sintomatologı́a psiquiátrica a la edad de 15 años en niños implicados en situaciones de “bullying” cuando tenı́an 8 o 12 años. Además, se estudió la relación entre la implicación en situaciones de “bullying” a los 8 años y la existencia de trastornos psiquiátricos en esa edad y en momentos posteriores.

Método: Para estudiar los sı́ntomas y los trastornos psiquiátricos se utilizaron cuestionarios cumplimentados por los padres, los maestros y los propios niños.

Resultados: Los niños implicados en situaciones de “bullying,” en particular aquellos que fueron vı́ctimas de las agresiones en los primeros años de la escuela elemental y en los primeros años de la adolescencia, presentaron más sı́ntomas psiquiátricos cuando tenı́an 15 años. La probabilidad de sufrir un trastorno psiquiátrico a los 15 años fue mayor entre los niños implicados en una situación de “bullying” a los 8 y 12 años que entre los niños no implicados. Cuando se tuvieron en cuenta los trastornos psiquiátricos ocurridos a la misma edad en que se produce el “bullying,” la implicación en dichas situaciones aumentó la probabilidad de trastornos definidos por el maestro a la edad de 15 años.

Conclusión: Las experiencias de “bullying” están asociadas no sólo con sı́ntomas psiquiátricos que ocurren a la misma edad en que se producen los hechos sino también con sintomatologı́a psiquiátrica que ocurre en edades posteriores. Además, la probabilidad de sufrir alteraciones en la adolescencia aumenta si el niño estuvo implicado en situaciones de “bullying” cuando tenı́a la edad para acudir a la escuela elemental.

Introduction

CHILDREN WHO ARE involved in bullying are found to have more concurrent psychiatric symptoms and deviance than non-involved children Kumpulainen et al 1998, Kumpulainen et al 1999. Bullies are reported to have especially externalizing behavior Boulton and Smith 1994, Kumpulainen et al 1998 and aggression (Roland, 1980). Victims are found to have internalizing behaviour (Kumpulainen et al., 1998), and to be immature and lonely, and to have poor communication and problem solving skills (McClure & Shirataki, 1989). Children involved in bullying may have problems related to school (Reid, 1983), and there are also reports of children who have committed suicide because they have been victims of bullying (Prewitt, 1988).

Involvement in bullying during childhood has also been suggested to be related to future psychological well being. As adults, victims are reported more likely to be depressed and to have poor self-esteem (Olweus, 1993), and to have difficulties in later sexual relationships (Gilmartin, 1987). According to Hugh-Jones and Smith (1999), one-half of bullied individuals reported as adults long-term effects of being bullied at school, predominantly affecting personal relationships. Bullies have been found to have more criminal convictions later in life, and they are also more likely to be involved in serious and recidivist crime (Whitney & Smith, 1993). It has also been suggested that children are especially vulnerable in early adolescence to the psychological harm of bullying, and it is during that period that bullying is particularly common and intense (Rigby, 1999). On a whole, however, our knowledge about the future psychiatric symptoms and deviance of children involved in bullying in earlier years is still scanty and also based mostly on retrospective studies.

The purpose of this study was to investigate psychiatric symptoms and deviance at the age of 15 years in a group of children who were involved in bullying at the age of 8 years and in a group of children who were involved in bullying at the age of 12 years. Furthermore, this study explores the relationships between involvement in bullying, concurrent psychiatric deviance and later psychiatric deviance.

Section snippets

Material and methods

This research project was conducted at three time points: Study 1 in autumn 1989, Study 2 in autumn 1993 and Study 3 in autumn 1996. The time interval between Study 1 and Study 2 was 4 years, and that between Study 2 and Study 3, 3 years, so the interval between Study 1 and Study 3 was 7 years, covering most of the time period children attend elementary and secondary schools. The children were 8.5 year old in Study 1, 12.5 years in Study 2 and 15.5 years in Study 3. In Study 2 and Study 3,

Total scores at the age of 15 years

Bully-victims scored highest on both the parents’ and teachers’ scales and on the BDI (Table 1). Scoring on the parents’ and teachers’ scales differed statistically between the groups studied but the difference on the BDI was not statistically significant. Post hoc analysis using Bonferroni correction to compare each group involved in bullying with controls revealed that total scores of victims and bully-victims differed from those of controls on the parental scale, and also on the teacher

Discussion

One of the strengths of this study is the high response rate of the informants: 7 years after the initial assessment, nearly 90% of the children and their teachers completed the questionnaires. The parental response rate was lower but quite acceptable even after 7 years, although some differences between parental remainders and dropouts were found. Parental dropouts came from low SES families more commonly than did the remainders. The children had also scored slightly higher on the Rutter A2

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    This study was supported by the Child Psychiatric Research Foundation (Finland).

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