Teenagers who experience bullying and develop interpersonal distrust are significantly more likely to have mental health issues in the future. The study used data from the Millennium Cohort Study, tracking 10,000 UK children, to establish a clear connection between bullying, distrust, and mental health issues.
Only interpersonal distrust, not factors like diet or sleep, was connected to the increased risk of mental health issues from bullying.
A new study, co-led by UCLA Health and the University of Glasgow, realized that young teenagers who develop a strong distrust of other individuals as a result of childhood bullying are more likely to have significant mental health issues, as they enter adulthood compared to those who do not develop interpersonal trust issues.
The study, which was published in the journal Nature Mental Health, is believed to be the first to observe the connection between peer bullying, interpersonal distrust, and the subsequent development of mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, and anger.
In addition to interpersonal distrust, the authors studied if diet, sleep, or physical activity also linked peer bullying with subsequent mental health issues.
In the United Kingdom, researchers used data from 10,000 children who had studied for almost two decades as part of the Millennium Cohort Study. From these data, the researchers found that adolescents who were bullied at age 11 and in turn developed greater interpersonal distrust by age 14 were around 3.5 times more likely to experience clinically significant mental health problems at age 17 compared to those who developed less distrust.
According to the study’s senior author Dr. George Slavich, who directs UCLA Health’s Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research, the results could help schools and other institutions develop new evidence-based interventions to counter the negative mental health impacts of bullying,
Presently there are few public health topics more important than youth mental health, says Slavich. To help teens reach their fullest potential, we need to invest in research that recognizes risk factors for poor health and translates this knowledge into prevention programs that can improve lifelong health and resilience.
The results come amid growing public health concerns about the mental health of youth. Recent studies by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 44.2% of sampled high school students in the U.S. reported being depressed for at least two weeks in 2021, with one in 10 students who were surveyed having reported attempted suicide that year.
In this new study, the researchers observed these alarming trends from the perspective of Social Safety Theory, which hypothesizes that social threats, such as bullying, impact mental health partly by instilling the belief that other individuals cannot be trusted, or that the world is a dangerous, unfriendly or unpredictable place.
Previous research has recognized associations between bullying and mental and behavioral health issues among youth, including its impact on substance abuse, depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts.
However, following youth over time, this study is the first to confirm the suspected pathway of how bullying leads to distrust and, in turn, mental health issues in late adolescence.
Slavich said when individuals develop clinically significant mental health issues during the teenage years, it can increase their risk of experiencing both mental and physical health issues across the whole lifespan if left unaddressed.
In addition to interpersonal distrust, the authors studied if diet, sleep, or physical activity also linked peer bullying with subsequent mental health problems. However, only interpersonal distrust was found to relate bullying to a greater risk of experiencing mental health problems at age 17.
What these data suggest is that we need school-based programs that help foster a sense of interpersonal trust at the level of the classroom and school, says Slavich. One way to do that would be to develop evidence-based programs that are mainly focused on the transition to high school and college, and that frame school as an opportunity to develop close, long-lasting relationships
