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from the won't-someone-think-of-the-children dept.
I found this recently-published article, Children who are bullied suffer worse long-term mental health problems than those who are maltreated interesting. Here are some excerpts:
A new study published in The Lancet Psychiatry shows that children who have been bullied by peers suffer worse in the longer term than those who have been maltreated by adults.
The research is led by Professor Dieter Wolke from Warwick's Department of Psychology and Warwick Medical School. The study is due to be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in San Diego on Tuesday 28 April.
[...] Professor Wolke said: "The mental health outcomes we were looking for included anxiety, depression or suicidal tendencies. Our results showed those who were bullied were more likely to suffer from mental health problems than those who were maltreated. Being both bullied and maltreated also increased the risk of overall mental health problems, anxiety and depression in both groups."
An abstract and full article (pdf) are available.
(Score: 1) by inertnet on Monday May 04 2015, @03:28PM
Even if you're right, that doesn't make bullying acceptable. On the contrary, this study shows that it should be even more unacceptable than previously thought.
(Score: 2) by wisnoskij on Monday May 04 2015, @03:31PM
You obviously are not paying attention. If I am right, note: I am, Then we have zero evidence that bullying is bad for the bullied. We might as well assume that the are living happier fuller lives because of being bullied then they would without.
(Score: 1) by inertnet on Monday May 04 2015, @03:58PM
Sure, you must be right. Let's make it official, bullying is good for kids. One thing is obvious though, you were never bullied. Your sig implies the opposite.
(Score: 2) by wisnoskij on Monday May 04 2015, @04:11PM
My sig implies I like South Park, nothing more.
That said, I am not aware of of ever being bullied in highschool, but I was too shy to be aware of what was even going on around me most of the time and ran between classes like my life depended on it, so I have never been able to figure out if that was because I just did not notice it or that is never existed.
(Score: 1) by inertnet on Monday May 04 2015, @04:55PM
I wasn't aware of the South Park reference. When my son was bullied I went to the school to have something done about it, all I got was that the the bully deserved a second chance...
Because I'm an introvert as well, some kids tried to bully me in primary school, until I got fed up and defended myself. It usually only took one punch to stop them for good.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Monday May 04 2015, @05:56PM
...all I got was that the the bully deserved a second chance
Of course. They always get a second chance, and a third, and a fourth, because the teachers can't do much about it and their parents f***ing don't care.
I remember picking my son up from school one day after school. We were standing in front of the school with other parents and kids, while I was talking to another parent. One of the class bullies kicked my son, hard enough to knock him down. (They were maybe 9 or 10 years old.) The mother was standing right there, pretending she hadn't noticed anything. I said "your son just kicked my kid" and waited. She asked her son "did you?"? He put his hands over his ears and started babbling to make sure he couldn't hear anything else she might say. So she shrugs and walks off. That's it, no consequences for the kid, no apology, nothing.
Bringing up correlation and causation is, sorry, kind of naive. Sure, it's impossible to prove to a mathematical standard, because we can't really run randomized, double-blind studies on kids' lives. But I have lots of anecdotes like the above, as do many other people. Eventually, anecdotes do accumulate into something resembling evidence, as we watch previously happy kids withdraw into depression, despite anything we can do to help them.
That all said, it's not actually the bullies who are at fault. Kids are fundamentally uncivilized creatures [wikipedia.org]. It's primarily a failing of their parents, who can't be bothered to civilize them. Heck, in some cases the parents actively encourage the bullying: "look how tough my kid is - he's beating that other kid up". To a lesser extent, it's a failing of the schools - teachers could do more, but they often don't want to get involved, or they aren't allowed to get involved for political reasons.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by btendrich on Monday May 04 2015, @04:40PM
I was bullied. In elementary school and again in middle school, by different groups for different reasons. It made me realize that you have to give a shit what they think/say for them to have any power over you. Except when one of them (once) tried to make it physical. Then I broke the kids face with a lunch tray. Got a lot of crap for "not fighting fair" and all that. But hey, what the hell do I care what they think is fair, right? I would argue that some level of bullying/confrontation is a good thing in life, your kids aren't going to live in a bubble forever.