Researchers from Duke Medical School and the University of North Carolina Medical School surveyed 1420 children, and unexpectedly found that children who often bullied others were twice as likely to have bulimia symptoms (vomiting after overeating) as children who did not participate in bullying. The research results will be published in the 65438+February issue of International Journal of Eating Disorders.
"For a long time, our impression of school bullying people is that they have excessive energy," said Dr. William Copland, the first author of the article and an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Duke University School of Medicine. "Maybe they are good at controlling social situations or getting out of trouble, but this is not the case at all. Laughing at others may make them sensitive to their body image, or they regret after overeating, leading to vomiting or excessive exercise. "
This discovery is based on the study of Great Smoky Mountains, and analyzes the health information of participants from 9 to 20 years old. Although this data is considered as a community sample and does not represent all Americans, it can provide some clues about how children are affected when they are 9- 16 years old.
Participants are divided into four categories-children who are not bullied or bullied by others; Bullied children; Sometimes the victim, sometimes the mastermind's child; He has repeatedly abused other children verbally and physically, socially isolated others, created rumors, and never became a pure bully.
As the researchers expected, children bullied by their peers usually increase the risk of eating disorders.
The risk of anorexia (prevalence rate is 65,438+065,438+0.2%, and children who have never been involved in bullying is 5.6%) and bulimia (prevalence rate is 27.9%, the latter is 65,438+07.6%) is doubled.
Children who are both victims and bullied have the highest proportion of anorexia symptoms (the prevalence rate is 22.8%, and children who are not bullied or bullied are 5.6%), and the prevalence rate of bulimia is also the highest (4.8% children have bulimia, the latter is less than 1%), and then they maintain their weight by vomiting.
However, bullying also has a great influence on bullies. 17.6% of the children who didn't take part in bullying or being bullied suffered from anorexia, and this proportion was as high as 30.8% among bullies.
"All these behaviors may have devastating effects on children's long-term health," said Dr. Cynthia M. Brick, a distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and co-author of the study on eating disorders.
"Sadly, people sometimes become the people they hate the most," Brick said. Bullies are not satisfied with their bodies, which makes them make fun of others' bodies. These findings show that we should be alert to any children who suffer from eating disorders in bullying incidents, whether they are bullies, victims or both. "
Copeland said that although many children will be affected for life, some people will bravely face bullying and succeed. He and his colleagues are studying many factors, including investigating economic and educational results, and even biomarkers related to the inheritance of bullies or victims.
"What we want to further study is why some people have suffered the same thing and they can face it better without the same consequences," Copeland said. "We really need to know the resilience of bullied children, which can help us determine who needs the most attention and how to help such children recover as soon as possible."
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