(November 16, 2015) Being
bullied in childhood has been associated with increased risk for anxiety,
depression and even eating disorders. But according to new research, it’s not
only the victims who could be at risk psychologically, but also the bullies
themselves.
Researchers at Duke Medicine and the University of North
Carolina School of Medicine were surprised to find that in a study of 1,420
children, those who bullied others were twice as likely to display symptoms of
bulimia, such as bingeing and purging, when compared to children who are not
involved in bullying. The findings are published in the December issue of
International Journal of Eating Disorders.
“For a long time, there’s been this story about bullies that
they’re a little more hale and hearty,” said lead author William Copeland,
Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke
University School of Medicine. “Maybe they’re good at manipulating social
situations or getting out of trouble, but in this one area it seems that’s not
the case at all. Maybe teasing others may sensitize them to their own body
image issues, or afterward, they have regret for their actions that results in
these symptoms like binge eating followed by purging or excess exercise.”
The findings come from an analysis of interviews from the
Great Smoky Mountains Study, a database with more than two decades of health
information on participants who enrolled at age 9. The data is considered a
community sample and not representative of the U.S. population, but offers
clues to how children ages 9 to 16 could be affected.
Participants were divided into four categories – children
who were not at all involved in bullying; victims of bullying; children who
sometimes were victims and sometimes were instigators; and children who were
solely bullies, repeatedly abusing other children verbally and physically,
socially excluding others, and rumor mongering, without ever becoming a victim
themselves.
The researchers were not surprised to find that victims of
peer abuse were generally at increased risk for eating disorders.