The Adult Health Cost Of Childhood Bullying

The Adult Health Cost Of Childhood Bullying

Recent investigation has found out that individuals that have suffered childhood bullying are found to be at greater risks of developing pathological behavior along with disrupted psychological, cognitive and physical functioning that adversely affects their quality of life.

Although, the concept of bullying is extremely diverse but it is generally assumed that bullying has to do with causing another individual due psychological and physical turmoil via disturbing acts. Such disturbing acts could include verbal abuse or slander, performing acts against their will or even an attempt to control another’s actions via aggression or intimidation.

According to the US Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS), the most common sorts of bullying are vocal and societal:

Name calling – 44.2% of cases

Mocking – 43.3%

Spreading rumors or lies – 36.3%

Pushing or shoving – 32.4%

Hitting, slapping or kicking – 29.2%

Leaving out – 28.5%

Threatening – 27.4%

Stealing possessions – 27.3%

$e*u@l comments or gestures – 23.7%

Email or blogging – 9.9%

Bullying is said to affect the health of children on various levels. Some researchers have found a strong relationship between bullying and suicide as the former is said to rouse feelings of melancholy and nervousness which are strong indicators of suicide.

However, DHHS believe that the notions of suicide linked with bullying are merely an over generalization of the information that is provided through media outlets. This is because every individual that has been bullied is not suicidal and every suicidal individual has many more issues that lead to such pathological behavior.

On the other hand, childhood bullying has been found to lead to physical ailments in later life as well. For example, a research published in Medical News Today found out that children who had been bullied during the ages of 8 and ten were more prone to sleep walking and recurrent nightmares.

Furthermore, some have also found out that individuals who had been bullied in their childhood also tend to have more physical ailments, and reduced standards of living in adulthood. They are regularly unemployed or college/school dropouts with damaged social relationships. Support for this can be found in the 2014 study done at King’s College London where they found out that the negative effects of bullying across a wide range tend to carry forward into adult life till at least the age of forty in the form of weakening mental, social and physical health aspects.

Conclusion

Researchers at King’s College London conclude that although bullying will forever play an integral part in an individual’s childhood, however, parents, teacher,s and caregivers should not solely depend on programs that are designed to stop bullying but in fact work upon various interventions that would help reduce that effects of bullying that tend to get carried forward into adulthood.

Author Bio:

Nicki is a professional life coach with over 3 bestselling books on various life challenging topics. She spends most of her time helping parents and caregivers deal with various difficult aspects of their lives through seminars and an online portal. Her work on spy software to monitor children has received great appreciation at TheOneSpy blog from a reader who turns her keep themselves updated with the latest news. To know more about her follow on twitter @nickimarie222