Understanding Children and Adolescents’ Experiences Being Bullied: A Mixed-Methods Study

Abstract

Bullying is a common experience among youth around the world, but is not commonly thought of as a traumatic event. However, previous research suggests the outcomes and symptoms children and adolescents experience after bullying parallel those experienced after a traumatic event. This mixed-methods study aimed to explore adolescents’ experiences being bullied and the consequences experienced following being bullied. Contextual factors were explored to understand under which circumstances participants endorsed symptoms consistent with trauma. Ten adolescents (Mage = 12.5 years, 50% boys, 90% White) who reported being bullied at least “sometimes” over a period of “weeks” or more, per a single parent report, in the past year agreed to complete surveys and a semi-structured interview about their bullying experiences. Thematic analysis revealed six themes related to consequences of bullying experiences: Emotional Distress, Avoidance of School Settings, Somatic Complaints, Importance of Social Support, Disruptions within Peer Groups, and Impaired School Performance. Nine participants endorsed at least one posttraumatic stress symptom and three participants endorsed clinical levels of PTSD qualitatively. Contextual factors associated with endorsing posttraumatic stress symptoms in this study were gender, duration and frequency of bullying, age and number of perpetrators, and seriousness of bullying. Results from this study suggest that consequences of bullying vary between victims and that while some participants reported consequences consistent with PTSD, other participants’ consequences seem to parallel other depressive or anxiety disorders. These results have implications for future research and interventions for working with youth who have experienced repeated bullying.