“It’s baby stuff.” Despite alarming data on rates of anxiety, depression, and even suicide in victims of bullying, this phrase continues to be a repetitive excuse when the subject is brought up for discussion. But no, these are not children’s things. In fact, they do not even affect the person who suffers from it, only at a young age, since the effects reach adulthood, both psychologically and physically.
psychological consequences of bullying are the most studied. In fact, they have even been analyzed in bullies themselves, as they too can suffer mentally when they reach adulthood. However, how does bullying affect at the physical level much less has been analyzed.
But the fact that little has been studied does not mean that it remains unanalyzed. Several studies have been conducted to find out how bullying affects cardiometabolic health those who suffer from it, both now and many years later. And the results agree that all these “baby things” cling to victims for life in the worst possible way.
bullying in childhood
According to a study published in 2021 every third child be bullied every 30 days. That is, over the past month, a third of the world’s children have been bullied, harassed or harassed in one form or another. The number is alarming, especially when considered together with others such as the number of consultations for suicidal thoughts among teenagers attended in 2021 by the ANAR Foundation. On the whole they were 4542 minors who seek help for this reason. According to Save the Children, reasons that can lead to children and teenagers to something so extreme can vary, including including factors such as the situation family poverty. However intimidationin all its formats, continues to be one of the best triggers.
For this reason, more and more people are asking to review the action protocols and take as many measures as possible to stop this scourge. A scourge that strikes those who suffer from it from the first moment. In the aforementioned 2021 study, its authors analyze how bullying affects children’s health. The most common consequences include fatigue, lack of appetite, sleep problems, abdominal and back pain, headaches, dizziness and of course depression and anxiety.
Bullies have consequences too
This was an interesting study because it doesn’t just look at the effects of bullying on victims. He also takes into account how it affects their own stalkers and those people who suffer from bullying but in turn they do it. There are no consequences for bullies in childhood. However, depression and anxiety also appear in those who perform a dual role. Typically, these are people who end up using bullying as a defense to avoid being targeted, and this affects them. mental health. But we are still talking about children. What happens when all these minors come of age?
Bullying also affects the mental health of adults…
It is often said that bullying makes those who are bullied stronger. what can you take knowledge of life this kind of experience. But children do not want to learn life. They just want to be happy and not be humiliated. For this reason, as adults, they are usually not connoisseurs of life, but people weighed down many injuries in his backpack. The consequences are not the same for everyone. Some do better than others, but in general they are affected.
The same study that analyzed the effects on bullies, bullies, and a mixed group tested whether they suffered from something similar in coming of age. And it was clear that yes.
It turned out that adults who were bullied in childhood and adolescence are more likely to depression, anxiety, panic disorder and suicidal tendencies. And here you can see the impact on bullies. They may develop all of these problems, but they are also more likely to commit violent crime and use drugs.
… and physics
In 2013, a study was published that followed up adults with more than 12,000 children recruited at ages 9, 11 and 13. originally. Thus, it was observed that as they matured, they were more likely to develop all of the aforementioned psychological problems. But not only that. It also affected them physically and even their social and work relationships. Those who were bullied were more likely to have pain, especially headacheY recovered more slowly from illness. In addition, they had more problems to spend a good Financial management.
Now a group of scientists from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health published a new study looking at the other side. In particular, it is observed how this affects psychological well-being of children their physical health as adults. A group of children was also followed up for several years. In this case, they were 3500 teenagers, average age 16 at the beginning of the study. All have been followed for over 20 years.
Upon entering the study, they were offered a series of surveys about their psychological well-being, which included an assessment of five parameters: optimism, happiness, self-esteem, a sense of belonging, and a sense of love.
On the other hand, during their follow-up as adults, tests were performed to analyze their cardiometabolic health. Seven risk factors were measured with them: high density lipoproteins (HDL), also known as “good” cholesterol; non-HDL-cholesterolcalculated as total cholesterol minus HDL cholesterol; systolic and diastolic blood pressure (maximum and minimum); hemoglobin A1cwhat gives an idea of the level of sugar in the blood; C-reactive protein, which is an indicator of inflammation; and body mass index.
Consequences for everyone, but especially for the most marginalized groups
When comparing some data with others, it was observed that adolescents with four or five positive mental health traits “had 69% more likely to maintain positive cardio-metabolic health like young people. In addition, “with each additional mental health asset, the likelihood of positive cardiometabolic health increased by 12%.”
The study does not focus on bullying, but considers harassment as one of the factors that can reduce mental health assets. It doesn’t matter that at home they feel loved and respected. If they are constantly humiliated at school, it is more than likely that these assets will suffer. This applies to all children; but according to this latest study, especially blacks and latinos. Low mental well-being scores in adolescence have been found to be much more affected by their health in adulthood. And it’s a double whammy, because in countries like the US, it’s these populations that often have more difficult access to health care. In addition, they tend to be subject to double discrimination.
In short, there are many reasons to try and end bullying. To reduce the load on the backpacks of tomorrow’s adults, we must start by paying attention to who they are in the present. And it starts with admitting once and for all that no, bullying is not for children.
Source: Hiper Textual
