Study: Relational bullying harms adolescents’ views on their career prospects

October is National Bullying Prevention Month and a new study has shown that teens who are bullied in high school tend to become pessimistic about their future.

Researchers found that adolescents who experienced relational bullying were more likely to develop depressive symptoms and, over time, became more pessimistic about their academics and career prospects beyond high school. Relational bullying includes things like starting rumors, being deliberately ignored, and being excluded from group activities.

Hannah L. Schacter, an assistant professor of psychology at Wayne State University in Detroit, said a student’s perception of social inadequacy can spill over into other areas of life.

“You get a message from your peers that you’re someone who doesn’t deserve positive treatment, and that can then generalize to these other areas of life,” Schacter explained. “Now you expect that you won’t be able to succeed academically, or maybe you won’t be able to achieve what you wanted in terms of work or life plans. »

The study began with more than 300 9th grade students at 38 different high schools in Michigan. Students completed online surveys several times a year for three years.

The researchers found that students who experienced overt victimization, such as direct verbal or physical attacks, did not report lower future expectations. Previous research has established that relational victimization affects elementary school students’ academic performance and standardized test scores over time. Schacter argued that schools must view the effects of bullying not only as a difficult social problem, but also as an educational priority.

“As there is greater recognition of the negative impact it can have on adolescents, more and more schools have, at the very least, adopted anti-bullying policies,” Schacter acknowledged. “Unfortunately, implementing large-scale, evidence-based school interventions against bullying takes a long time and can be very costly.”

She added that it is important to have strong communication between researchers, policy makers and administrators to combat bullying so that it is not too burdensome for schools and is supported by what researchers learned.