Bullying in Early Adolescence: The Psychosocial, Emotional Wellbeing, and Academic Outcomes of Victimisation

Abstract

Bullying is a global issue, with extensive literature concluding that victimisation leads to long-term mental health complications (Hymel & Swearer, 2015; Moore et al., 2017; Wolke & Lereya, 2015; Zych et al., 2015). Bullying that occurs throughout the adolescent years is of great concern due to the implications associated with healthy and appropriate development. Despite the wealth of knowledge on the impact of adolescent bullying, there remain gaps in the literature. First, there is a lack of work examining the longitudinal psychosocial and academic outcomes of all types of early adolescent bullying (10 to 12 years), especially concerning cyberbullying. Therefore, the first study was a comprehensive systematic review designed to address this limitation and provide guidance for the subsequent two studies to respond. Namely, studies two and three responded to the little work examining the effect early adolescent bullying has on indicators of positive wellbeing (study two), and the impact of cyberbullying on measures of emotional wellbeing and academic achievement over time (study three). This was done by utilising a large, population-based dataset, the Wellbeing and Engagement Collection (WEC), while drawing on the Ecological Systems Theory posed by Bronfenbrenner (1977) and the Complete State Model of Mental Health proposed by Keyes and Lopez (2002). The WEC represents one of the world's largest population monitoring systems of adolescent mental health and wellbeing through the annual survey administered to considerable numbers of South Australian students (Gregory et al., 2021). The WEC contains many questions on relevant topics, including emotional wellbeing, engagement with school, learning readiness, and health and wellbeing out of school. The South Australian Department for Education funds the WEC, manages the online collection portal, and provides support and reports to schools, education partnerships, and communities. To complement this approach, the subsequent papers, results, and implications of this thesis are discussed with education and public health perspectives in mind. The second cross-sectional study examined data from over 9000 participants and aimed to provide new knowledge about the effect of all four types of bullying on positive and negative indicators of emotional wellbeing while controlling for a wide range of child, peer, and school-level covariates. The final study was designed to extend the knowledge gained from study two and address the limitations from study one. Therefore, study three focused on the association between early adolescent cyberbullying and positive and negative emotional wellbeing and academic achievement outcomes in the short- (one year later) and longer-term (three years later) while controlling for child, peer, school, and community-level covariates. The three studies found that victims of all types of early adolescent bullying experience significantly poorer concurrent, short-term, and longer-term psychosocial, emotional wellbeing, and academic outcomes than students who do not experience any bullying. Therefore, attention should be given to designing appropriate and specific school-level interventions that help advocate for victims of early adolescent physical, verbal, social, and cyber bullying while they complete formal education.