A recent study revealed that teens who are connected to their school may feel protected from depression associated with bullying.
For the study, researchers assessed data from 2,175 younger people aged between 25-27 years.
Researchers revealed that bullying during adolescence was more strongly associated with anxiety and depression than bullying in childhood.
A pediatrician and researcher at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Dr. Nia Heard-Garris, stated, “This finding might be due in part to the heightened social sensitivity of adolescents to their peers and the significant influence of peer relationships amongst teenagers than children."
Garris continued, "Likewise, we saw that school connectedness was safer against depression in teens than in younger children."
The study indicated that school connectedness — feeling safe, included and supported at school minimised the risk of depression for teens who had recently faced bullying, but not for those bullied in the early years of life.
Scientists further discovered that nearly 11.9% of participants faced bullying at both ages 9 and 15.
43% of individuals have been bullied since the age of 9, while 5.7% reported the issues at the age of 15.
Those bullied in childhood and adolescence had significantly higher scores of mental health illnesses, including anxiety and depression, with average anxiety levels of 6.9 on an 18-point scale and showed depression scores of 4.7 out of 15.
Researchers stressed the need for further studies to find the influence of peer bullying in adolescence continue till late adulthood.
