Being bullied in high school can make teens less optimistic about the future

The consequences of bullying teen mental health are well documented. But could bullying also shape their future ambitions?

Us latest research reveals that teens who are bullied in ninth grade become more pessimistic about their educational and career prospects after high school. In particular, being bullied increases teens’ risk for depression, making them feel hopeless about the future.

Like one developmental psychologist who studies adolescent well-being, I wanted to better understand the long-term effects of bullying on teens’ future expectations. My research team recruited 388 middle school students who had recently started ninth grade. We asked them to complete surveys every few months for three consecutive years.

Teens who reported being bullied more often by peers in ninth grade subsequently reported lower expectations for their future educational and career prospects in eleventh grade. That is, bullied teens were less confident in their ability to achieve the desired level of education, find enjoyable work, and earn enough money to support themselves after high school. Students who were bullied more in ninth grade likely saw their future expectations drop by about eight percentile points, compared to peers who were not bullied. This decline remains significant even when factors such as race, gender, socioeconomic status, and prior expectations about academic performance are taken into account.

Interestingly, one form of bullying appeared to have a particularly negative impact. Adolescents who experienced forms of peer victimization that involved exclusion (intentionally ignoring or excluding them from group activities) or who experienced damage to social relationships were worst off. But adolescents who were the target of overt victimization – such as hitting and kicking, threats and direct name-calling – did not report lower expectations for the future.

Why does bullying affecting teens’ relationships and social reputation dampen teens’ optimism about future success? We discovered that depression plays a role. Teens who experienced this type of bullying in ninth grade showed more depressive symptoms in tenth grade. Having greater depressive symptoms in 10th grade was associated with lower future expectations a year later. Given that In adolescence, peers become increasingly importantBullying that directly damages these relationships seems particularly insidious.

Previous research shows that teenagers with negative expectations for the future are less likely to do this go to university And secure high-level jobs in adulthood. Our findings suggest that bullying early in high school can create a cycle of hopelessness and pessimism about later educational and career prospects. Investing in proven strategies to prevent bullying, such as programs that promote bystander intervention and provide targeted support to victims, has led to It has already been shown to improve the health of young people and could also help break this cycle.

We plan to conduct additional surveys in the coming years among the young people who participated in our research as they transition to college and the workforce. By doing this we hope to identify the best ways to intervene to prevent bullying and its consequences. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that all adolescents feel confident in their potential to thrive as adults.

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