Analysis suggests child bullies have higher risk for substance use later in life
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Children and adolescents who bully their peers have a higher risk for drug, alcohol and tobacco use later in life, according to the results of a meta-analysis published in Pediatrics.
Charlotte Vrijen, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and colleagues reviewed existing evidence regarding the association between peer bullying perpetration in childhood and adolescence.
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They selected and analyzed 215 effect sizes from 28 publications between 1992 and 2019, and then reported on 22 samples and a total of 28,477 participants.
The authors reported that childhood and adolescent bullying perpetration predicted later substance use for all three specific outcomes — drugs (OR = 1.47; 95% CI, 1.29-1.68), alcohol (OR = 1.4; 95% CI, 1.18-1.66) and tobacco (OR = 1.66; 95% CI 1.33-2.06) — as well as substance use in general (OR = 3.25; 95% CI 1.96-5.38).
“Although the effects we found are small, we know from other studies that bullying is linked to other negative life outcomes as well, and a higher risk of multiple adverse outcomes may indicate serious problems for bullies later in life,” Vrijen told Healio. “For a long time, research focused primarily on negative consequences for the victims of bullying, but it has become increasingly clear that bullying perpetrators also have a higher risk of maladjustment. It is important to further investigate the scope of the barriers bullying may pose for long-term development.”