The adult consequences of being bullied in childhood

Blanchflower, D. G. and Bryson, A. (2024) The adult consequences of being bullied in childhood. Social Science and Medicine, 345, 116690. (doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116690) (PMID:38367340)

Abstract

Most studies examining the impact of bullying on wellbeing in adulthood rely on retrospective measures of bullying and concentrate primarily on psychological outcomes. Instead, we examine the effects of bullying at ages 7 and 11, collected prospectively by the child's mother, on subjective wellbeing, labour market prospects, and physical wellbeing over the life-course. We exploit 12 sweeps of interview data through to age 62 for a cohort born in a single week in Britain in 1958. Bullying negatively impacts subjective well-being between ages 16 and 62 and raises the probability of mortality before age 55. It also lowers the probability of having a job in adulthood. These effects are independent of other adverse childhood experiences.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Bullying, subjective wellbeing, birth cohort, national child development study.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Blanchflower, Professor David

Creator Roles

Blanchflower, D. G.: Writing – original draft, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization

• Authors: Blanchflower, D. G., and Bryson, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Economics
• Journal Name: Social Science and Medicine
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0277-9536
• ISSN (Online): 1873-5347
• Published Online: 12 February 2024
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2024 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Social Science and Medicine 345:116690
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License