Psychiatric disorders and the use of mental health services among childreninvolved in bullying

This study had two aims: to evaluate the relationship between bullying and psychiatric disorders and to study the probability of using mental health s ervices among children involved in bully/victim problems. The data consiste d of interviews with 423 parents and 420 children. Diagnostic measures were based on the Isle of Wight Interview Children involved in bullying as bull ies, bully-victims, and victims were compared with other children. Children involved in bully/victim problems were more prone to have psychiatric diso rders than noninvolved children. The probability of being disturbed was hig hest among male bullies, followed by male bully-victims and female victims (9.5-fold, 7.9-fold, and 4.3-fold, respectively) compared with noninvolved same-sex children. The most common diagnoses among children involved in bul ly/victim problems were attention deficit disorder, oppositional/conduct di sorder, and depression. Furthermore, children involved in bully/victim prob lems were more likely to have used mental health services at some time duri ng their lives and also during the previous 3 months. Special attention sho uld be paid to children's mental health when dealing with bullying problems at school. Referral pathways to mental health services and factors affecti ng the referral processes among children should be further studied. (C) 200 1 Wiley-Liss, Inc.