Bullying may have a bigger impact on your child than you realize.

05-13-09 RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Lots of parents may chalk it up to kids just being kids, but bullying is a serious problem, especially as kids move their social lives online, where anonymity makes it easy to pick on their peers. Research has already shown that bullied kids suffer from ulcers, sleeplessness, and falling grades. A new study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, has found that it may trigger serious mental disorders like schizophrenia when kids get older.

THE DETAILS: The analysis included 6,437 children who had already been recruited for a long-term health study in southwest England. During interviews, the children were asked if they’d experienced psychotic symptoms within the previous 6 months, such as hallucinations, delusions of being spied on, and suspicions that their thoughts were being read. Then they were asked if they had experienced any types of bullying during the same time period, for instance, having property taken, being called nasty names, having other children refuse to play with them or ask them to do things they didn’t want to do, or being the subject of lies or rumors.

About 47 percent of children between the ages of 8 and 10 reported being the victims of bullying, with boys more likely to do so than girls. Boys were also more likely to be victims of overt bullying (physical or verbal abuse), while girls were more likely to be victims of relational bullying (being excluded from activities, having lies or rumors spread about them, and so forth). Regardless of the type, however, the severity and frequency of bullying was found to have the greatest impact on psychological health as the kids got older. Both boys and girls who were bullied more than once a week between the ages of 8 and 10 were found more likely to develop psychotic behaviors by the time they were 13, and, the authors write, that may lead to disorders like schizophrenia in adulthood.

WHAT IT MEANS: Further research will illuminate the link between bullying and long-term mental health. But it’s clearly important to put a stop to bullying, no matter how harmless it may seem—and for the sake of the bullies as well as the bullied. Studies have found that kids who bully are more likely to skip school or even drop out, and they’re more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, and get into fights.

Here are a few ways to recognize and help a bullied child:

• Know the signs. Bullied kids may appear sad or depressed when they come home from school, lose interest in their schoolwork or have unusually bad grades, have torn or damaged clothes or unexplained bruises, and complain of headaches, stomachaches or other physical ailments.

• Throw a party. Kids who are bullied may not have a strong network of close friends. Help your child develop one by inviting his or her classmates over for a play date or a Saturday get-together. Kids who have friends also have people to stick up for them when a bully starts pushing. And it works in reverse: Teach your child to stick up for other kids who are bullied.

• Google your kids. Cyberbullying is becoming a serious problem, and one way to keep tabs on it is to search the Internet for your child’s name, e-mail address, screen names, and even phone numbers to see if anything negative shows up about him or her. Make it easy by setting up a Google Alert (www.google.com/alerts) to notify you when any words or photos are posted about your child. If that feels too intrusive, ask your child to show you e-mails or text messages that he finds offensive, and keep a log of them to show to school officials if the situation gets out of hand. Learn more tips for dealing with cyberbullies at www.teenangels.org and www.stopcyberbullying.org.

For more tips on dealing with bullies, visit Stop Bullying Now!, a site maintained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.