Singham T, et al. - This work entailed the characterization of the concurrent and longitudinal contribution of exposure to bullying, towards the mental health in childhood and adolescence using a twin differences design to strengthen causal inference. This study displayed stringent evidence of the direct detrimental contribution of exposure to bullying in childhood. This childhood exposure could be partially regarded as a symptom of preexisting vulnerabilities. Hence, the dissipation of effects over time for many outcomes underscored the potential for resilience in children who were bullied. It was determined that the addition to programs that lowered exposure to bullying, interventions could gain an advantage from targeting the preexisting vulnerabilities and focused on resilience.

Methods

• The candidates were enrolled from the Twins Early Development Study, from population records of births in England and Wales between January 1, 1994, and December 31, 1996.
• The eligible age was between 11 and 16 years of age, recruited during December 1, 2005, to January 31, 2013.
• Data analysis was carried out from January 1, 2016, to June 20, 2017.
• As a part of the exposures, the candidates completed the Multidimensional Peer-Victimization Scale at 11 and 14 years of age.
• The main outcomes comprised of mental health assessments at 11 and 16 years of age.
• It consisted of anxiety, depression, hyperactivity and impulsivity, inattention, conduct problems, and psychotic-like experiences (eg, paranoid thoughts or cognitive disorganization).

Results

• It was noted that the 11108 twins included in the final sample (5894 girls and 5214 boys) were a mean age of 11.3 years at the first assessment and 16.3 years at the last assessment.
• Consistency was found in the most stringent twin differences estimates (monozygotic) with causal contribution of exposure to bullying at 11 years to concurrent anxiety, depression, hyperactivity and impulsivity, inattention, and conduct problems.
• Decreased effects were reported over time; that is, significant concurrent contributions to anxiety (β = 0.27; 95% CI, 0.22-0.33) persisted for 2 years (β = 0.12; 95% CI, 0.04-0.20) but not 5 years.
• Persistence was determined of the direct contributions to paranoid thoughts and cognitive disorganization, for 5 years.