Bullying is one of the most traumatizing experiences that any person can go through. It can have a long-term effect on the individual’s mental health and overall outlook of life. A recent study says that people who were bullied as adolescents are more likely to have violent thoughts.
Studying adolescents
The study, which was published in the Aggressive Behavior journal, explains that people who have encountered bullying often fantasize about inflicting harm. Conducted by researchers from the University of Cambridge involved 1,465 adolescents aged between 15 and 20 from Zurich, Switzerland.
Researchers asked the participants to disclose if they had been having violent thoughts within the last 30 days. They also required them to say if they had been bullied in the past year. Bullying in the study was described as ‘interpersonal intentionally harm-doing.’
Psych News Daily says that the scientists required the participants to reveal their experiences on the 23 possible ways of being bullying victims. These forms include physical aggression, taunts, and sexual harassment by friends.
They also recorded their experiences with aggressive parenting, like yelling and slapping. Additionally, they shared their encounters with dating violence, such as being pressured to engage in intercourse.
Most of the participants admitted to going through at least one form of bullying. Interestingly, the scientists noted that those who had gone through multiple forms of bullying were more prone to obsessing about humiliating and attacking others.
Boys are more likely to have violent thoughts.
According to EurekAlert!, the study also found that boys were more likely to have violent thoughts than their female counterparts. They, however, noted that both sexes were prone to violent thoughts if exposed to multiple forms of bullying; specifically, of all 17-year-old boys who experienced victimization in the past year, 56% of them obsessed over violence. On the other hand, 85% of boys who went through at least five forms of bullying have had violent thoughts in the past month.
Finally, 97% of those who experienced ten forms of bullying admitted to entertaining violent thoughts. The probability of victims harboring aggressive thoughts by 8% with each additional violation.
