In the U.S., campaigns against bullying have gone a long way to reduce cases. (Photo : Facebook)
Victims of bullying tend to have a more scarred existence than the victims of sexual, emotional or physical abuse, according to a study conducted by The Great Smoky Mountains Study in North Carolina on 1,273 children. The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children also conducted a study on 4,026 children and arrived at similar results.
The findings were published in The Los Angeles Times narrating that bullied English children who participated in the study were 70 percent more likely to contract depression and practice some form of physical violence as opposed to the victims of abuse.
The bullied American children, on the other hand, were five times more likely to suffer from anxiety as compared to victims of abuse. Suicidal tendencies form the major side effect of bullying. The researchers accounted for factors which form a relation between maltreatment and mental health such as gender, family instability and socio-economical status.
The journal Lancet Psychiatry published this paper highlighting the bullying study. The importance of the study can be attributed to the fact that bullying puts childhood on line and bring to limelight its devastating consequences.
Meanwhile, Corinna Jenkins Tucker and David Finkelhor of the University of New Hampshire commented that present results on abuse, child maltreatment and merciless bullying are irrelevant as they are studies in isolation of each other.
According to The Guardian's reports, most of the government machinery focuses on family maltreatment and bullying receives meager attention. However, the researchers recommend the need for zero tolerance programs in this regard. They feel that the number of children bullied is exorbitant and such examples can be found in all social groups.
