Bullying a Review: Presentations to an Adolescent Psychiatric Service and within a School for Emotionally and Behaviourally Disturbed Children

Abstract

A B S T R A C TThis article reviews the literature on bullying with particular reference to associated psychiatric symptoms and presents data and case examples from an inpatient and outpatient adolescent service and a school for emotionally and behaviourally disturbed children (EBD school). Bullying or its effects do not seem to be a distinguishing factor among those admitted to an adolescent unit. In the outpatient group, however, being bullied is frequently a factor in the presentation of adolescents to psychiatric services, with depression being the diagnosis in over 70% of cases. In contrast, bullies and bully/victims were most likely to present with conduct disorders, which were frequently co-morbid with hyperkinetic disorder/attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Unsurprisingly, regardless of whether bully, victim, bully/victim or neither, the most common psychiatric diagnosis of the EBD school pupils who were interviewed was that of conduct disorder. This was sometimes co-morbid with AD(H)D but also seen alongside generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder.In an adolescent unit and in an EBD school, being bullied or a bully is an important factor associated with psychiatric symptomatology and should be regarded as a substantial mental and public health issue. K E Y W O R D S adolescent, bully, depression, health, victim

Bullying Experiences of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service-users: A Pilot Survey

“…Salmon et al, 2000). A total of 57.7% of participants reported being bullied at school in the present investigation whereas 42% of respondents in the Northern Ireland study reported being bullied in some way at school, either as a 'bully' or 'bully/victim' (Collins et al, 2002).…”

“…Kumpulainen et al (2001) found that 44% of 'bully/victims', 42% of 'bullies', and 24% of 'victims' had had contact with mental health professionals compared to 13% of controls. In a sample of 52 adolescents from a psychiatric outpatient service in England, Salmon et al (2000) reported that 27% of participants had been bullied. Authors have also commented that in adolescents where bullying is the central issue, the problem is sometimes hidden behind a secondary complaint such as school refusal or social anxiety (Luis, 2004) Rationale for current study…”

Demographic, Psychological, and School Environment Correlates of Bullying Victimization and School Hassles in Rural Youth

“…Victims have reported feeling ugly, worthless, lonely, and unhappy [10], which might explain why many victims reported low self-esteem [29,30]. Various studies have also suggested that victimization was correlated with internalizing disorders [31][32][33][34], such as anxiety and depression [35,36]. Although bully/victims and bullies are typically more aggressive than victims, victims scored higher than noninvolved youth on a measure of reactive aggression [37], suggesting that victimized youth are also at an increased risk of displaying aggressive behaviors.…”

Developmental trajectories of adolescent victimization: Predictors and outcomes

“…Researchers have found bullying victimization to be longitudinally associated with depression (Bond, Carlin, Thomas, Rubin, & Patton, 2001;Hawker & Boulton, 2000;Kaltiala-Heino, Rimpela, Rantanen, & Rimpela, 2000;Lester, Cross, Dooley, & Shaw, 2012b;O'Brennan, Bradshaw, & Sawyer, 2009;Roland, 2002;Sweeting, Young, West, & Der, 2006;Ybarra, 2004), anxiety (Kaltiala-Heino et al, 2000;Lester et al, 2012b;Salmon, James, & Smith, 1998), psychosomatic complaints (Fekkes, Pijpers, & Verloove-Vanhorick, 2004;Kaltiala-Heino et al, 2000) and suicidal ideation (KaltialaHeino, Rimpela, Marttunen, Rimpela, & Rantanen, 1999;Rigby & Slee, 1999;Salmon, James, Cassidy, & Javaloyes, 2000). Persistent victimization is a strong predictor of the onset of depression and anxiety (Bond et al, 2001) with those chronically victimized showing more negative effects (Menesini, 2009) than those only recently victimized.…”