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Bullying may cause PTSD in children

Researchers from Norway found a high incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in bullied children. However, whether PTSD symptoms were associated with bullying or other traumatic events was unclear.

“My main concern is that even though we do not have design support to attribute the symptoms to bullying, clinicians should be aware of the possibility that symptoms actually might be attributed to the bullying — and that future studies should look into these issues with stronger designs,” study researcher Thormod Idsøe, PhD, of the University of Stavanger and Bergen’s Center for Crisis Psychology, told Psychiatric Annals.

 

Thormod Idsøe

Idsøe and colleagues collected data on 963 Norwegian children aged 14 to 15 years who were part of a larger national survey. Students were asked to rate their experiences with bullying, reporting on the extent to which they were bullied or had bullied other students through verbal, social or physical means. PTSD symptoms were assessed using the Children’s Impact of Events Scale. The researchers measured two symptoms of PTSD — intrusive memories and avoidance behavior — but not psychological stress activation, another recognized component of the disorder.

Among students who reported being bullied, 33.7% had scores within the clinical range. Boys were 2.27 times more likely to be bullied on a daily basis vs. girls (95% CI, 1.29-4.00). However, bullied girls (40.5%) were significantly more likely than bullied boys (27.6%) to score within the clinical range (P<.01). In further analysis, the researchers found that students who displayed the greatest PTSD symptoms were bullied and also were victims of bullying themselves.

“In general, our findings add to the discussion of the stressor criterion that has received increased attention with the release of [DSM-5],” the researchers wrote. “If bullying does not satisfy the A1 criterion, our results add to the findings that posttraumatic symptomatology may nonetheless be present among individuals who have experienced stressful life events. No matter what, we believe our findings must be interpreted carefully, and future research should prioritize investigating bullied children through diagnostic procedures to find out more about this.”

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.