Study Reveals Future Financial Ramifications of Bullying
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iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Being a bully or being the victim of a bully increases a person’s likelihood that they will face financial and other hardships later in life, new research shows.
According to a study entitled “Impact of Bullying in Childhood on Adult Health, Wealth, Crime and Social Outcomes,” victims of bullying were 11 percent more likely to have negative financial outcomes in adulthood compared to children who did not experience bullying.
The figure rises to 31.6 percent for children who said they were both a bully and the victim of bullying.
The study also finds that bullying victims are 11.6 percent more likely to be living in poverty and 13.2 percent more likely to have been fired from a job.
The report indicates that bullying is not only a serious problem for people when they’re young children, but also carries through a person’s life.
The study’s authors say, “Involvement with bullying in any role was predictive of negative health, financial, behavioral and social outcomes in adulthood.”
“Being bullied is not a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up but throws a long shadow over affected children’s lives,” they add.
The authors of the study interviewed 1,420 children up to six times between the ages of 9 and 16, then interviewed them again when they were adults between the ages of 24 and 26.
The study was published in the journal Psychological Science.
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