Uncover the truth about the psychological symptoms a child develops if bullied.
Healthy teasing and play fighting is common among growing school children. These are pretty normal conflicts and children learn to cope up with them. But bullying is different and serious. Here, the victim is emotionally and psychologically abused in a systematic and repeated manner. It has to be dealt in a firm manner.
But it’s high time we admitted that bullying is grave issue and should be dealt with seriously. More persuasive studies and steps to curb the menace need to be undertaken before it is too late for some children.
Psychotic symptoms common in bullied children
Professor Dieter Wolke, professor of developmental psychology, University of Warwick, along with his research team, examined around six thousand children from their birth to their teens. They found that bullied children had high chances of developing psychotic symptoms by the time they reached early adolescence.
They interviewed these children besides performing psychological and physical tests for them. Their parents were also involved and asked to give complete information regarding their child’s development, both physical and emotional.
Professor Wolke said: “Our research shows that being victimized can have serious effects on altering perception of the world, such as hallucinations, delusions or bizarre thoughts where the person’s insight into why this is happening is reduced.”
Suicidal thoughts rising in bullied children
Another recent research at Yale School of Medicine reviewed studies from 13 countries and found signs of a noticeable connection between bullied children and suicidal tendencies in them. These studies covered 37 cases from United States, Canada, several European countries, South Korea, Japan and South Africa.
"While there is no definitive evidence that bullying makes kids more likely to kill themselves, now that we see there's a likely association, we can act on it and try to prevent it," said Young-Shin Kim, M.D., assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine's Child Study Center.
However, a lot is still to be studies in this field, before coming to any concrete conclusions. Lot of other factors, like gender, psychiatric problems and a history of suicide attempts, have to be looked into.
Nevertheless, immediate steps should be taken by parent and school authorities to nip the menace in the bud.
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