Bully Victims at Higher Risk of Future Unemployment, Poor Social Relationships and Mental Disorders

A new study adds to the growing research that shows bully victims have higher risk of severe health complications, poor social relationships and unemployment. The study challenges the idea that bullying is harmless fun and a part of growing up.

According to Centers for Disease control and Prevention (CDC), about 30 percent of students had been bullied on school property in 2011.  Previous research has shown that bullying alters a person's genetic structure and makes him/her vulnerable to depression and mood swings later in life. The current study looks at a unique group of bullies- victims who were bullied as kids and turned into bullies later in life.

"We cannot continue to dismiss bullying as a harmless, almost inevitable, part of growing up. We need to change this mindset and acknowledge this as a serious problem for both the individual and the country as a whole; the effects are long-lasting and significant," Dieter Wolke of the University of Warwick and lead author of the study, according to a news release.

The current study found that people who have been victims and perpetrators of bullying have many problems during adulthood.

Bully-victims, the study found, had six times higher risk of being diagnosed with a serious illness or a psychiatric disorder. These people were also more likely to be heavy smokers.

According to researchers bully-victims fail to develop coping mechanism to deal with abuse, which increases their risk for mental disorders.

"In the case of bully-victims, it shows how bullying can spread when left untreated," Wolke added. "Some interventions are already available in schools but new tools are needed to help health professionals to identify, monitor, and deal with the ill-effects of bullying. The challenge we face now is committing the time and resources to these interventions to try and put an end to bullying."

Compared with people who were never part of bullying, bullies and their victims had two times higher risk of losing jobs and being impoverished.

The study was based on data of over 1,400 people when they were around 9 to 16 years of age and at 24-26 years of age.

The study is published in the journal Psychological Science.