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Data from more than 70,000 adolescents collected in a large American study point to the mental distress suffered by middle and high school students who are victims of school bullying. An even more destructive impact would be upon those targeted because of their sexual orientation.
School bullying may be the cause of real mental distress in our children. The subject is not new and comes up regularly in the news, sometimes with tragic consequences, inviting us to redouble our attention. But a new American study published on February 15 in PLOS Onedetails a little more precisely the misdeeds of the different types of bullying suffered at school and gives a new overview of this social fact.
Bullying and harassment related to sexual orientation leave the most scars
The study authors used data from 70,451 questionnaires from the 2018 Iowa Youth Survey, a document offered every two or three years to 6th, 4th and 1st graders in the US state. The first results confirm it: there is indeed a link between mental distress and school bullying.
Those who are victims generally report various symptoms: headaches, or sleep disorders. However, while all forms of bullying have a negative impact, some forms particularly damage the mental health of these young people:
- Students who report being bullied because of their religion or background were no more likely to report feelings of sadness or hopelessness than were students who did not;
- Bullying related to sexual orientation or gender identity, on the other hand, or hurtful sexual jokes and comments, were consistently correlated with feelings of sadness and hopelessness as well as suicide attempts;
- Cyberbullying, social bullying, and race-based bullying also had significant correlations with mental distress and suicide attempts.
“The data shows quite clearly that anti-bullying campaigns should prioritize cyberbullying and identity-based harassment, and more specifically that related to sexual identity or gender”, conclude the researchers who hope that this study will influence “implementing school policies and programs.”
“Therapy is beneficial but must go hand in hand with repair”
In the field for 13 years, Valérie Dumas, school nurse in college and high school in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques works every day against school bullying. “These young people do not come spontaneously, but opening the dialogue has been my struggle for years. We can tell them from the 6th grade medical visit that they can come and see us, talk to us, but the fear that their situation will get worse often holds them back” she describes.
It’s often a bit later that the veneer cracks, when stories of identity and, indeed, sexual orientation surface.
“In second, it’s not daily but almost. Young people snap, for many reasons, but in 9 out of 10 cases, it is harassment that has not been detected in previous years and whose effects have lasted too long” she confirms.
On the other hand, despite the number of children who are not doing well, the nurse calls for actions carried out within each establishment, aware of the problem, in particular thanks to the prevention carried out by the young people themselves. But when the damage is done, when the mental health is bad, a psychological follow-up remains essential.
“Fortunately, this is done a lot today. The youngster will not forget what he has experienced, but this work will allow him to move forward and not stop there. However, this is not enough. A harassed young person gets out of it when he obtains redress and on condition that the actors on the ground put an end to that” she concludes, inviting to continue and multiply the actions in the establishments.