The Impact of Bullying
on Mental Health Among Adolescents
Abstract:
Adolescents who encounter bullying and
sexual harassment carry a serious danger to their mental health and wellbeing.
However, effective intervention strategies depend on a knowledge of the
intricate connection between these events and the effects they have on mental
health. This study looks into how bullying affects the mental health of
teenagers, focusing on how often it happens and how it’s linked to measures of
student wellbeing. This study uses data from a statewide survey of Virginia
high schools to investigate the effects on student well-being and look at
demographic variations in the prevalence of bullying and sexual harassment. It
focuses on prior research that has demonstrated the detrimental effects of
these behaviors. The findings show that there is a significant prevalence of
both bullying and sexual harassment, with a greater percentage reported by
women than by men. Significant variations were noted throughout the demographic
groupings, underlining the necessity of focused interventions. Additionally, a
beneficial link was discovered between sexual harassment and bullying,
indicating a connection between both actions. The results of a hierarchical
regression analysis showed that there was a substantial correlation between
both types of victimization and unfavorable well-being indicators, including
engagement and mental health. Students who experienced both bullying and sexual
harassment reported the highest levels of distress, according to the severity
threshold study, underscoring the cumulative effects of repeated victimization.
The Impact of Bullying
on Mental Health Among Adolescents
Bullying among adolescents is an increasing issue that poses significant
risks to mental health and well-being. Adolescents who are bullied, whether in
person or online, often suffer from a variety of psychological effects that can
have a negative impact on their overall mental health. Understanding the
complex relationship between experiences with bullying and mental health
effects is critical for designing effective interventions to help adolescents
populations. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of
bullying on adolescents’ mental health, with an emphasis on the amount of
bullying occurrences and their relationship with signs of student well-being.
Previous research has concentrated on the negative impact of bullying on
the mental health of adolescents. Zaborskis et al. (2019) emphasized the
frequency of bullying behaviors and their potential impacts by finding a direct
connection between cyberbullying, school bullying, and suicidal thoughts in
adolescents. According to Rubens et al. (2019), bullying has a multifaceted
impact on many aspects of adolescent life. They examined the relationships
between bullying, victimization, and sleepiness during the day with academic
issues in teens attending alternative high schools. The relationships between
sexual harassment and bullying and indicators of student well-being have been
studied by Crowley and Cornell (2020), demonstrating the significance of
comprehensive approaches to addressing the complex connections between social
experiences and the effects on mental health. A study by Hysing et al. (2021)
looked at the effects of bullying on teenagers’ sleep, mental health, and
academic performance. According to their research, there was a greater number
of mental health issues and sleep disturbances among bullies, victims, and
bully-victims, which had a negative impact on academic performance. In their
investigation of depressed symptoms in Vietnamese adolescents, Phan et al.
(2022) discovered a significant impact and correlations with factors including
unity in the community and cyberbullying. The influence of bullying
victimization on mental health has been studied by Guo et al. (2022) in
relation to the mediating roles of aggressive behavior as well as perceived
support from others.
How does bullying impact the mental health of adolescents? The Impact of
Bullying on Mental Health Among Adolescents explores the complex relationship
that exists between bullying experiences and the mental health of adolescents.
The goal of this research is to better understand the potential detrimental
effects that bullying including verbal, physical, and social harassment may
have on adolescents’ psychological health.
Methods
The data for this study was sourced from “Associations
of Bullying and Sexual Harassment with Student Well-Being Indicators”. As
part of the state’s annual School Safety Audit program, a statewide survey of
Virginia high schools was carried out in the spring of 2018 and provided the
data for this study, as described by Cornell et al. (2018). With a remarkable
99% participation rate, the survey covered 322 of the 324 high schools that
were eligible.
Subjects:
Of the 85,750 participants in the subjects, 52.2%
were female. 27% of them were in the 9th grade, 26% in the 10th
grade, in the 11th grade, and 21.9% in the 12th grade. 52.5% of
participants identified as White or Caucasian, 15.1% as Black or African
American, 11.8% as Hispanic, 4.5% as Asian, 0.5% as American
Indian or Alaska Native, and three percent as Native Hawaiian or Pacific
Islander. 13.5% of the participants said they identify with two or more races. About
23.8% of the participants communicated in a language other than English at
home. In terms of parental education, 25.6% of parents graduated from high
school, 7.3% did not graduate from high school, 9.1% were unsure, 24.5%
completed a 4-year college, 11.6% completed a 2-year college or technical education.
A common indicator of a student’s socioeconomic level (SES) is the percentage
of students who were qualified for free or reduced-price meals (FRPM), which
stands at 32%.
Procedures:
A
systematic approach to sampling and data gathering was utilized in the study.
Schools are able to select 25 students at random from each grade level or
invite every student in ninth grade through twelve to participate in the study.
Schools received a random number list calibrated to the enrolment in each grade
for the purpose of random sampling. Students in the chosen grades were welcome
to take part, with the exception of those who had certain disabilities or
limited English ability. Qualtrics software was used to administer surveys
online, and students anonymously completed them in class while being watched
over by teachers. Random sampling was selected by some schools, whereas the
whole-grade invitation approach was selected by about 29% of them. The
percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals did not
significantly change between the two strategies, despite differences in
enrollment sizes. To assure the quality of the data, a multistage screening
process was used, which led to the elimination of surveys that had completion
durations below a certain cutoff or reports of responses that were not true. It
dropped 7,420 (8.0%) of the surveys. A technical paper that the researchers
supplied has further information on the response rate analyses and selection
procedure. There is an additional technical report that provides further
details on the validity screening procedure.
Measures:
A few of the Virginia High School Climate Survey items were
used in the study, which concentrated on indicators related to education,
mental health, risk behaviors, bullying, and sexual harassment. Students
answered questions on a four-item scale about how often they had encountered
various forms of bullying in the previous academic year. Participants were
asked to rate their experiences with physical, verbal, social, and
cyberbullying on a four-point Likert scale that went from “never” to “more
than once per month.” These items, which were developed from Olweus’s
definition of bullying, have been linked to sadness, poorer grade point
averages, and unfavorable school perceptions, according to earlier research.A
four-item sexual harassment measure that was modified from the University of
Illinois Victimization measure and the AAUW Sexual Harassment Survey was used.
The measure evaluated instances of inappropriate sexual remarks, jokes,
gestures, sexual gossip, persistent invitations to go out, and uninvited
sexual physical contact. Using a 5-point Likert scale, students indicated how
frequently they had these events over the previous 12 months.
Variables:
Bullying and Sexual Harassment Frequency: This variable
measures how frequently bullying, which includes physical and verbal harassment
as well as social isolation, occurs among adolescents. On a scale from
“never” to “daily,” participants will be asked to indicate
how often they had encountered situations involving bullying over the previous
six months.
Student Wellbeing: This variable would concentrate on
measures of student happiness and mental health. Happiness is an individual’s
feeling of joy and satisfaction that students feel on a daily basis. Mental
health refers to the psychological well-being of students, covering signs like
stress, anxiety, and depression.
Results:
This study’s statistical analysis produced a number of
important conclusions about the frequency of sexual harassment and bullying
among adolescents, how these behaviors affect indicators of wellbeing, and the
limit for severity of victimization experiences. First of all, it was
discovered that bullying and sexual harassment were common problems, with
differences across socioeconomic class, gender, grade level, and race/ethnicity.
Compared to men, women reported greater rates of both types of victimization,
and significant differences were seen across a number of demographic factors. Furthermore,
a beneficial correlation was shown to exist between sexual harassment and
bullying, suggesting a connection between these two behaviors. In addition, it
was shown using hierarchical regression analysis that negative measures of
well-being, such as mental health, engagement, substance use, and educational
expectations, were substantially correlated with both sexual harassment and
bullying. Both sexual harassment and bullying as predictors were consistently
correlated with these indicators in the models that included them, indicating a
negative effect on the well-being of adolescents.
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