Researchers found that being bullied often leads to not trusting other people. In turn, that can lead to poorer mental health.
A study of 10,000 youth in the United Kingdom revealed that those who were bullied had more “mental health problems in late adolescence, and this effect was partially mediated by interpersonal distrust during middle adolescence.”
Those adolescents with high levels of distrust “were approximately 3.5 times more likely to subsequently experience clinically significant mental health problems than those who developed less distrust.”
The researchers concluded that bullied kids would likely have fewer mental health problems if they received counseling that included strengthening their trust in others.
[All quotes are from a research article by Tsomokos DI and Slavich GM in Nature Mental Health (2024): https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-024-00203-7].
Peter M. Hartmann, MD
Family Medicine & Psychiatry
