Psychiatric outcomes of bullying victimization: a study of discordant monozygotic twins
Open accessAbstract
Background: Bullying victimization in childhood is associated with a broad array of serious mental health disturbances, including anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation and behavior. The key goal of this study was to evaluate whether bullying victimization is a true environmental risk factor for psychiatric disturbance using data from 145 bully-discordant monozygotic (MZ) juvenile twin pairs from the Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioral Development (VTSABD) and their follow-up into young adulthood. Method: Since MZ twins share an identical genotype and familial environment, a higher rate of psychiatric disturbance in a bullied MZ twin compared to their non-bullied MZ co-twin would be evidence of an environmental impact of bullying victimization. Environmental correlations between being bullied and the different psychiatric traits were estimated by fitting structural equation models to the full sample of MZ and DZ twins (N = 2824). Environmental associations were further explored using the longitudinal data on the bullying-discordant MZ twins. Results: Being bullied was associated with a wide range of psychiatric disorders in both children and young adults. The analysis of data on the MZ-discordant twins supports a genuine environmental impact of bullying victimization on childhood social anxiety [odds ratio (OR) 1.7], separation anxiety (OR 1.9), and young adult suicidal ideation (OR 1.3). There was a shared genetic influence on social anxiety and bullying victimization, consistent with social anxiety being both an antecedent and consequence of being bullied. Conclusion: Bullying victimization in childhood is a significant environmental trauma and should be included in any mental health assessment of children and young adults.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Associations between SLEs and depression may in part reflect non-causal influence or confounding by genetic or familial factors.
“However, it has been found that associations may in part reflect non-causal influence or confounding by genetic or familial factors (Brown et al., 2014; Kendler et al., 1999a; Silberg et al., 2016).”
From Stressful life events increase the risk of major depressive episodes: A population-based twin study (2023) · cites this paper as Silberg et al., 2016
In the Results (Bullying victimization and psychiatric disturbance; page unavailable), bullying was associated with young-adult depression in the full sample, but depression rates did not differ significantly between bullied and non-bullied discordant identical twins. This is consistent with possible familial confounding, but the paper does not establish genetic or familial confounding specifically for depression, and it studies bullying rather than stressful life events generally. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredNegative peer interactions increase emotional symptoms via non-shared environmental pathways, unconfounded by pre-existing genetic dispositions or by features of the familial environment shared by both twins.
“Furthermore, twin studies show that negative peer interactions increase emotional symptoms via non‐shared environmental pathways, providing evidence that these associations are unconfounded by pre‐existing genetic dispositions or by features of the familial environment shared by both twins (Arseneault et al., 2008; Schaefer et al., 2018; Silberg et al., 2016).”
From A cross‐lagged twin study of emotional symptoms, social isolation and peer victimisation from early adolescence to emerging adulthood (2023) · cites this paper as Silberg et al., 2016
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Hawker, D. S. J., & Boulton, M. J. (2000) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00629 · Cited by 2,694 · see citing works
Bullying and Suicidal Ideation and Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis
Holt, M. K., Vivolo-Kantor, A. M., Polanin, J. R., Holland, K. M., DeGue, S., Matjasko, J. L., Wolfe, M., & Reid, G. (2015) · Pediatrics · doi:10.1542/peds.2014-1864 · Cited by 675 · see citing works
Sourander, A., Jensen, P., Rönning, J. A., Niemelä, S., Helenius, H., Sillanmäki, L., Kumpulainen, K., Piha, J., Tamminen, T., Moilanen, I., et al. (2007) · PEDIATRICS · doi:10.1542/peds.2006-2704 · Cited by 419 · see citing works
Childhood bullying involvement predicts low-grade systemic inflammation into adulthood
Copeland, W. E., Wolke, D., Lereya, S. T., Shanahan, L., Worthman, C., & Costello, E. J. (2014) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1323641111 · Cited by 291 · cited 3× · see citing works
“showed a heightened inflammatory response in those children who were the target of peer victimization (Copeland et al. 2014).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationKlomek, A. B., Sourander, A., & Elonheimo, H. (2015) · The Lancet Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(15)00223-0 · Cited by 283 · see citing works
Bullying victimisation and risk of psychotic phenomena: Analyses of british national survey data
Catone, G., Marwaha, S., Kuipers, E., Lennox, B., Freeman, D., Bebbington, P., & Broome, M. (2015) · The Lancet Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(15)00055-3 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 20
- Angold A Costello EJ The child and adolescent psychiatric assessment (CAPA) Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2000 39 39 48 10638066
- Arseneault L Milne BJ Taylor A Adams F Delgado K Caspi A Moffitt TE Being bullied as an environmentally mediated contributing factor to children’s internalizing problems: a study of twins discordant for victimization Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 2008 162 145 150 18250239
- Bell JT Spector TD A twin approach to unraveling epigenetics Trends in Genetics 2011 27 116 125 21257220 PMC3063335
- Bradshaw CP Sawyer AL O’Brennan LM A social disorganization perspective on bullying-related attitudes and behaviors: the influence of school context American Journal of Community Psychology 2009 43 204 220 19333749
- Card NA Hodges EV Shared targets for aggression by early adolescent friends Developmental Psychology 2006 42 1327 1338 17087564
- Copeland WE Wolke D Angold A Costello EJ Adult psychiatric outcomes of bullying and being bullied by peers in childhood and adolescence Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry 2013 70 419 426 23426798 PMC3618584
- Eaves LJ Silberg JL Meyer JM Maes HH Simonoff E Pickles A Rutter M Neale MC Reynolds CA Erikson MT Heath AC Loeber R Truett KR Hewitt JK Genetics and developmental psychopathology: 2 The main effects of genes and environment on behavioral problems in the Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioral Development Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 1997 38 965 980 9413795
- Gini G Pozzoli T Association between bullying and psychosomatic problems: a meta-analysis Pediatrics 2009 123 1059 1065 19255040
- Linker J Gillespie NA Maes H Eaves L Silberg JL Suicidal ideation depression and conduct disorder in a sample of adolescent and young adult twins Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior 2012 42 426 436 22646517 PMC3429720
- McEwen BS Eiland L Hunter RG Miller MM Stress and anxiety: structural plasticity and epigenetic regulation as a consequence of stress Neuropharmacology 2012 62 3 12 21807003 PMC3196296
- Olweus D Bullying at School: What we Know and What we Can Do 1993 Oxford Blackwell
- Petronis A Epigenetics and twins: three variations on the theme Trends in Genetics 2006 22 347 350 16697072
- Reijntjes A Kamphuis JH Prinzie P Telch MJ Peer victimization and internalizing problems in children: a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies Child Abuse and Neglect 2010 34 244 252 20304490
- Rutter M Silberg J Gene-environment interplay in relation to emotional and behavioral disturbance Annual Review of Psychology 2002 53 463 490 11752493
- Silberg J Meyer J Pickles A Simonoff E Eaves L Hewitt J Maes H Rutter M Heterogeneity among juvenile antisocial behaviours: findings from the Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioural Development Ciba Foundation Symposium 1996 194 76 86 8862871
- Stapinski LA Bowes L Wolke D Pearson RM Mahedy L Button KS Lewis G Araya R Peer victimization during adolescence and risk for anxiety disorders in adulthood: a prospective cohort study Depression and Anxiety 2014 31 574 582 24788688 PMC4190687
- Sugden K Arseneault L Harrington H Moffitt TE Williams B Caspi A Serotonin transporter gene moderates the development of emotional problems among children following bullying victimization Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2010 49 830 840 20643316 PMC2908591
- Takizawa R Maughan B Arseneault L Adult health outcomes of childhood bullying victimization: evidence from a five-decade longitudinal British birth cohort American Journal of Psychiatry 2014 171 777 784 24743774
- Trotta A Murray RM Fisher HL The impact of childhood adversity on the persistence of psychotic symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis Psychological Medicine 2015 45 2481 2498 25903153
- York TP Brumelle J Juusola J Kendler KS Eaves LJ Amstadter AB Aggen SH Jones KH Ferreira-Gonzalez A Jackson-Cook C Increased frequency of micronuclei in adults with a history of childhood sexual abuse: a discordant monozygotic twin study PLoS ONE 2013 8 e55337 23383158 PMC3559336
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Arseneault, L. (2018) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/jcpp.12841 · Cited by 501 · see citing works
Marengo, D., Jungert, T., Iotti, N. O., Settanni, M., Thornberg, R., & Longobardi, C. (2018) · Educational Psychology · doi:10.1080/01443410.2018.1481199 · Cited by 109 · see citing works
Stressful life events increase the risk of major depressive episodes: A population-based twin study
Bjørndal, L. D., Kendler, K. S., Reichborn-Kjennerud, T., & Ystrom, E. (2023) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291722002227 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Morneau‐Vaillancourt, G., Oginni, O., Assary, E., Krebs, G., Thompson, E. J., Palaiologou, E., Lockhart, C., Arseneault, L., & Eley, T. C. (2023) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/jcpp.13847 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
“…were weak but comparable at each timepoint ( r E at 12 years = .12 to .19; r E at 16 years = .07 to .20; r E at 21 years = .06 and .27), indicating that individual-specific environmental pathways modestly accounted for the associations between inter-personal difficulties and emotional symptoms.”
BackgroundInfluential
- Authors
- Silberg, J. L., Copeland, W., Linker, J., Moore, A. A., Roberson-Nay, R., & York, T. P.
- Affiliations
- Virginia Commonwealth University (US)
- Duke Medical Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Silberg, J. L.
- Venue
- Psychological Medicine
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2016-03-16
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1875-1883
- ISSN
- 0033-2917 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8978
- PMC
- PMC4939844
- OpenAlex
- W2300895138
- Cited by
- 100
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 16.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychological Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH062368, T32MH020030)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Workplace Violence and Bullying
- Keywords
- bullying victimization, mental health outcomes, monozygotic twins, discordant twins, environmental risk factors, social anxiety, separation anxiety, suicidal ideation, childhood bullying, genetic factors, environmental correlation
- MeSH terms
- Phobia, Social, Adolescent, Adult, Anxiety, Separation, Child, Diseases in Twins, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Twins, Monozygotic, Crime Victims, Young Adult, Bullying, Suicidal Ideation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
