T he effects of bullying on teens’ mental health are well-documented. But could bullying also shape their future aspirations? Our latest research reveals that teens who are bullied in ninth grade become more pessimistic about their educational and career prospects beyond high school. Specifically, being bullied increases teens’ risk for depression, which leaves them feeling hopeless about the future.
As a developmental psychologist who studies adolescent well-being, I set out to better understand the long-term effects of bullying on teens’ expectations for the future. My research team recruited 388 high schoolers who had recently started ninth grade. We asked them to complete surveys every several months for three consecutive years.
Teens who reported being more frequently bullied by peers in ninth grade subsequently reported lower expectations for their future educational and career prospects by 11th grade. That is, bullied teens felt less confident in their ability to achieve their desired level of education, find enjoyable work and make enough money to support themselves after high school. Students who experienced more bullying in ninth grade were likely to see their future expectations drop by approximately eight percentile points, compared with peers who were not bullied.
This drop remains significant even after accounting for factors such as race, gender, socioeconomic status and earlier expectations for academic achievement. Interestingly, one type of bullying ap.