New research: Bullying hurts kids’ brains

A new study reports that kids victimized by bullies develop abnormal brains that may make them more susceptible to depression and other psychological problems. Harvard University researcher Martin Teicher, who oversaw the blockbuster study, has long been researching the ways that young people are harmed when they experience or witness physical abuse in family settings.

"The reason I think that verbal abuse is so powerful is that individuals exposed to it repeat it to themselves," Teicher tells The Upshot. "When you're told things about yourself--when you're told that you're fat or that you're ugly or that you're a spaz--you wind up in a situation where that voice gets incorporated in your thinking. You wind up in a repetitive pattern of humiliation.

"We're wounded in a way that's enduring by our exposure. It's really important to be mindful--and very important, I think, for teachers in school to not allow it."

In the newly released study, Teicher, who had already established in earlier research that experiencing or witnessing physical abuse could do structural damage to kids' brains, zeroed in on 63 healthy people ages 18 to 25 who had never witnessed domestic violence, been physically bullied, or experienced physical or verbal abuse from their parents. That helped him isolate the effects of verbal peer bullying.

Within this sample of otherwise mentally stable young people, Teicher discovered that those who reported being bullied in childhood showed significant underdevelopment in the brain's corpus callosum. This region is like an "information superhighway" connecting the brain's left and right hemispheres, Teicher says.

The kids who showed this underdevelopment also reported higher levels of anxiety. Teicher says his previous research has shown that people who have this type of brain scarring are more susceptible to a host of psychological disorders.

Among a sample of around 700 young people who had never been exposed to domestic violence or physical abuse, those who reported being bullied by peers showed significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression, anger, dissociation and drug abuse.

Middle school is the most psychologically harmful time to be the target of bullying, the study shows.

Teicher's research had already found that witnessing parental abuse made people more likely to suffer depression and other psychiatric conditions as adults, but until now, no one knew that peer bullying could also harm the brain. "It turns out [verbal bullying] is very powerful whether it's your parents, your peers or your partners," Teicher says.

The findings, which will be published in the December issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, may bolster the case that federal education officials are already making for local officials to ensure that bullying is "eliminated" in schools.

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