THE ESSENTIAL
- Among boys, mental health problems related to school bullying, such as anxiety and depression, lead to an increased likelihood of being bullied later.
- Lower levels of friendship, social support and a slight increase in internalizing symptoms were observed in girls.
- Approaches to preventing or reducing the effects of bullying should be prioritized in schools, researchers say.
Insults, shoving, theft, teasing, hitting, rejection from a group, etc. We speak of harassment when a person repeatedly suffers verbal, moral or physical violence from one or more children or adults. In the school context, this relentlessness leads to a deterioration in the living conditions of the student concerned, which is manifested by a drop in academic results but also mental health problems. “The role played by gender in these developmental cascade processes is unclear, also little is known about the intra-individual effects between bullying intimidation and internalizing symptoms, and the theoretical benefits of friendship and social support have been virtually untested”, indicated researchers from the University of Manchester (England).
School bullying: boys suffer more internalizing symptoms
That’s why, in new research, they decided to test a number of hypotheses regarding the links between bullying, friendship and social support and internalizing symptoms, like anxiety and depression. The team recruited 26,458 adolescents, with an average age of 12, attending 176 schools in Manchester. The results, published in the journal Journal of Youth and Adolescenceshowed that the psychological consequences of harassment varied depending on gender.
Girls had lower levels of friendship, social support and a slight increase in internalizing symptoms. Among boys, a sharp increase in internalizing symptoms was observed. For the latter, mental health problems like anxiety and depression led to an increased likelihood of being harassed later.
-“Higher levels of friendship and social support did not confer protection against future intimidation through bullying for either girls or boys, but resulted in reduced internalizing symptoms in part for girls only” , can we read in the work which highlights the importance of positive relationships between students.
Anti-bullying programs “that meet the specific needs of boys and girls”
According to the authors, a school-wide approach, which includes children, parents and teachers, is necessary to overcome bullying and its mental impact. “There is an urgent need for effective interventions that address the unique challenges adolescents face during a critical developmental period in their lives. (…) Schools must implement programs that address the specific needs of boys and girls girls, focus on building positive peer relationships and providing support to those with mental health issues”, they concluded.
