Adolescent School Bullying Victimization and Later Life Outcomes

Abstract

We analyse the consequences of experiencing bullying victimization in junior high school, using data on a cohort of English adolescents. The data contain self‐reports of five types of bullying and their frequency, for three waves, when the pupils were aged 13–16 years. We assess the effects of bullying victimization on short‐ and long‐term outcomes, including educational achievements, income and mental ill‐health at age 25 years using a variety of estimation strategies – least squares, matching and inverse probability weighting. The detailed longitudinal data, linked to administrative records, allows us to control for many of the determinants of child outcomes that have been explored in previous literature, and we employ comprehensive sensitivity analyses to assess the potential role of unobserved variables. The pattern of results suggests that there are quantitatively important detrimental effects on victims. We find that both type of bullying and its intensity matter for high‐stakes outcomes at 16 years, and for long‐term outcomes at 25 such as mental health and income.