Lesbian, gay or bisexual children and those with a disability are more likely to be bullied and those who are repeatedly targeted record poorer wellbeing and higher levels of depression, a new study has found.
The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) study of nine-to-13 year olds also found that while a majority of young teenagers deal with at least one form of bullying behaviour regularly, less than one in 10 believe they have been actively bullied.
The research used the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study to pinpoint how bullying changes between middle childhood and adolescence and how it impacts on young people’s wellbeing.
The nine-year-olds were asked if they had been picked on in the past year, with four in 10 answering in the affirmative. This rose to more than 60 per cent among the 13-year-old cohort.
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual or questioning teens and those who are overweight were more likely to have been bullied.
When given a list of bullying experiences such as being hit, name-calling or exclusion, 62 per cent of 13-year-olds had experienced at least one such behaviour, with 37 per cent saying the behaviour was repeated. However, only 8 per cent believed they had actually been bullied.
The study said teenagers viewed certain types of behaviour, especially online abuse and name-calling, as bullying more so than other types, particularly being excluded by others.
Those with a disability, who are gay, bisexual or questioning, and children who are overweight appeared to be the focus of more social kinds of bullying, including exclusion and name-calling, rather than physical bullying.
Poorer wellbeing and higher depression was found among those who experienced more frequent bullying and behaviour that involved the same person. Exclusion was linked to both poorer wellbeing and greater depression.
[ Being bullied in school made me determined to speak up for othersOpens in new window ]
“However, these patterns must be interpreted with caution as wellbeing and depression are measured at the same time as the bullying experience,” the authors, Emer Smyth and Merike Darmody, said. “Bullying victimisation may lead to depressive symptoms but it also may be the case that those who experience depression become a target for bullying.”
They said the findings point to continuing challenges to the “inclusion of children and young people with a disability who report higher rates of social exclusion and name-calling”, the report says. “The more negative experiences of 13-year-olds who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or questioning point to the importance of specifically targeting homophobic behaviour within schools and youth organisations.”
They noted that “the most striking finding is the difference between how bullying is defined by many young people and by schools and other organisations. A significant proportion of young people experience bullying-type behaviour which causes them to feel upset or anger but do not define it as bullying and so are less likely to tell an adult about it.”
