The Longer You Were Bullied As a Kid, the More Likely You Are to Be Depressed As An Adult
Study finds nearly 30 percent of people with depression can trace their conditions to being bullied.
Depression costs a lot of money. Lost productivity, doctors bills, we're talking billions of dollars a year. So based on this latest research, anti-bullying programs might be one of the best investments schools can make in the long run.
The L.A. Times reports that a newly published study says depressed adults are more likely to have been bullied as kids - teased, blackmailed, harassed - frequently at the start of their teen years. The longer they were victims, the more likely that they’d develop depression in their adult years. Teens who weren’t bullied were only a third as likely to become depressed.
The entire study is available over at BMJ. The majority of kids said their bullying was never reported to teachers, so it’s uncertain how much these numbers might drop if the school pulled some of their tormentors aside and did something to discourage the sadistic little shits. Seems like that’s worth encouraging for the next study, no?
