Does bullying cause emotional problems? A prospective study of young teenagers

Objectives To establish the relation between recurrent peer victimisation a nd onset of self reported symptoms of anxiety or depression in the early te en years. Design Cohort study over two years. Setting Secondary schools in Victoria, Australia. Participants 2680 students surveyed twice in year 8 (aged 13 years) and onc e in year 9. Main outcome measures Self reported symptoms of anxiety or depression were assessed by using the computerised version of the revised clinical intervie w schedule. Incident cases were students scoring greater than or equal to 1 2 in year 9 but not previously. Prior victimisation was defined as having b een bullied at either or both survey times in year 8. Results Prevalence of victimisation at the second survey point in year 8 wa s 51% (95% confidence interval 49% to 54%), and prevalence of self reported symptoms of anxiety or depression was 18% (16% to 20%). The incidence of s elf reported symptoms of anxiety or depression in year 9 (7%) was significa ntly associated with victimisation reported either once (odds ratio 1.94, 1 .1 to 3.3) or twice (2.30,1.2 to 4.3) in year 8. After adjustment for avail ability of social relations and for so cio demographic factors, recurrent v ictimisation remained predictive of self reported symptoms of anxiety or de pression for girls (2.60, 1.2 to 5.5) but not for boys (1.36, 0.6 to 3.0). Newly reported victimisation in year 9 was not significantly associated wit h prior self report of symptoms of anxiety or depression (1.48, 0.4 to 6.0) . Conclusion A history of victimisation and poor social relationships predict s the onset of emotional problems in adolescents. Previous recurrent emotio nal problems are not significantly related to future victimisation. These f indings have implications for how seriously the occurrence of victimisation is treated and for the focus of interventions aimed at addressing mental h ealth issues in adolescents.