Does bullying cause problems in later years?

A study of 190 lesbian, gay and bisexual men and women, who were bullied at school, considered the long-term effects of this childhood experience. When compared to lesbian, gay and bisexual men and women, who had not been bullied at school, the participants revealed a greater tendency to exhibit depressive tendencies. However they did not suffer from low self-esteem and they had a positive attitude to their sexuality generally. The study did not find that they had particular problems with anxiety or had insecurity problems with close relationships,and so did not support the findings of other studies by Gilmarton (1987) and Olweus (1993).
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Article details

I Rivers (2001) 'The Bullying of Sexual Minorities at School: its nature and long- term correlates', in 'Educational and Child Psychology', Volume 18, Part 1 pages 32 - 46. See also 'Homophobic Bullying and Its Long-Term Effects. Summary of Findings'. This summary can be downloaded here.

The article summarised above (from 'Educational and Child Psychology') includes reference to the following articles: B G Gilmarton (1987) 'Peer Group Antecedents of Severe Love-shyness in Males', in 'Journal of Personality' Volume 55, pages 467-489; and D Olweus (1993) 'Victimization by peers: antecedents and long-term outcomes', in 'K H Rubin and J B Asendorf (editors) 'Social Withdrawal, Inhibition and Shyness', pages 315-341, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
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Author details

Dr Ian Rivers is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the College of Ripon and York St John in York. He has published widely on issues affecting lesbian and gay young people. The main focus of his research is homophobic bullying. Dr Rivers may be contacted by email.
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