More Mental Health Problems Seen for Teens Bullied in Childhood

Adolescents who develop greater distrust more likely to subsequently experience mental health problems

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Feb. 20, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Youth who are bullied in childhood develop more internalizing, externalizing, and total mental health problems in late adolescence, according to a study published online Feb. 13 in Nature Mental Health.

Dimitris I. Tsomokos, Ph.D., from the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom, and George M. Slavich, Ph.D., from the University of California in Los Angeles, examined how peer bullying in childhood impacts adolescent mental health in 10,000 youth drawn from the U.K. Millennium Cohort Study.

The researchers found that youth bullied in childhood developed more internalizing, externalizing, and total mental health problems in late adolescence; interpersonal distrust during middle adolescence partially mediated this effect. Compared with those who developed less distrust, adolescents who developed greater distrust were about 3.5 times more likely to subsequently experience clinically significant mental health problems.

“What these data suggest is that we really need school-based programs that help foster a sense of interpersonal trust at the level of the classroom and school,” Slavich said in a statement. “One way to do that would be to develop evidence-based programs that are especially focused on the transition to high school and college, and that frame school as an opportunity to develop close, long-lasting relationships.”