Can bullying cause trauma?

Bullying is the perpetration of aggression among school-aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. Aggression can take many forms, including verbal acts like name-calling, taunting, threats, and sexual comments. Social bullying or relational bullying occurs when social situations are used to inflict pain. This may be leaving someone out on purpose, spreading rumors about someone, or publicly embarrassing someone. Physical bullying is any physical aggression like hitting, but it also includes taking someone’s property or destroying someone else’s property.

Bullying is a relatively common occurrence, with about 20% of students between the ages of 12 and 18 reporting bullying experiences. The frequency that it occurs is alarming because bullying can have both immediate and long-term consequences, including trauma. Any event or circumstances that a person interprets and experiences as harmful or life-threatening can result in trauma. Because bullying involves aggression that threatens safety, it is often a traumatic experience.

Researchers have compiled information to determine what factors may result in long-term mental health and other issues and created the Adverse Childhood Events or ACES scale. Experiencing bullying is an ACE, which can carry consequences. Each person will interpret and respond to traumatic experiences differently.

Some who experience the trauma of bullying may have feelings of distress, become numb or desensitized, lose interest in once enjoyed activities, and have intrusive thoughts like flashbacks. Depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges may result from experiencing bullying or trauma. Trauma may result in posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Children who experience bullying may experience:

• Health complaints
• Lower academic achievement
• Drop out of school
• Changes in appetite
• Changes in sleep
• Loss of interest in once enjoyed activities
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Posttraumatic stress

When a child experiences bullying, it is important to help them feel safe, provide them with space and opportunity to talk through the events, and learn important coping skills that may help them move through the experience. For some, trauma symptoms may become so pervasive that treatment is needed with a professional counselor or healthcare provider.