Bullying and Mental Health

in Children and Young

People
 Learning outcomes
Aim of this session
• To provide an overview on the links between bullying and mental
health, to enable you to deal effectively with these issues within a
school

Objectives
• Understand the actions that can be taken to prevent and respond to
bullying of children with mental health issues
• Feel more informed and confident in addressing mental health and
whole-school bullying issues
• Feel more confident and capable of safeguarding children and
young people with mental health issues

How will we achieve this?

• Reflect on your current knowledge and beliefs
• Discuss and debate with colleagues
 Overview
• Importance of discussion and debate in this
session
• Key messages
• Bullying: the what, where, when and who
• Bullying, mental health and school
• Effective practice:
 Key messages
• Children who are bullied and/or bully others
are more likely to have mental health issues

• Children who bully others have often been

bullied

• Bullying can have a detrimental impact on a

child’s mental health

• There are specific issues to consider when

responding to bullying of
children who have mental
health issues
Q: What do you think
bullying is?
 What is bullying?
ABA (Anti-Bullying Alliance) defines bullying as:

• the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or

group by another person or group, where the
relationship involves an imbalance of power

• bullying can be physical, verbal or psychological

• it can happen face-to-face or through cyberspace

“You used to be able to go in to

school, get your head down, and
have different friends outside of
school. You could separate it.
Now you can’t.”
Who is involved?

Who are the

children that
bully?

Who are the

children being
bullied?
 Characteristics of those involved
Reaction to
“There was so much going stress
on in my life, that
sometimes the only way to Been
feel strong or powerful was
to bully other people.”
bullied
before

religion disability

Lack of Self-
understanding preservation

different

weakness
Q: Where do you think
bullying occurs?
 Where does bullying occur?
• In school - particularly in places where there
is little or no supervision and where young
people can be isolated
• In lessons - both by other children and young
people, and by teachers
• In the home - by parents, carers or siblings,
with this affecting their behaviour or well-
being in school
• On the journeys to and from school
• In the community
• Cyber-bullying
 Q: What mental health
issues do you think are
common in schoolchildren?
 Mental health
• 1 in 10 children are thought to have mental
health problems, such as:
– Depression
– Anxiety
– Eating disorders
– Self-harming
• Parents and children may be reluctant to
share information with the school due to
stigma
Possible signs of mental
health difficulties
Change in school
Signs of self- performance
harming

Loss of interest
in usual friends

Change in
Change in behaviour –
weight quieter or more
unruly
Q: What is the relationship
between bullying and
mental health?
Bi-directional relationship

Mental
Bullying health
Young person develops mental
health issues as a result of being
bullied
Impact of bullying on mental
health
Depression
Anxiety

Being bullied
Bullying
others

Mental
Bullying
health

“[Bullying] wears down their Self-harm

confidence, their self-esteem, Suicidal
until they’re quite depressed, thoughts
low. And also it leaves them
feeling very isolated. Which is Self-
why people don’t reach out for esteem
help with bullying.”
Impact of mental health on
bullying

Depression Bullying
Anxiety Being bullied others

Mental Bullying
health

Self-harm

“If you self harm or have, like, an eating

Suicidal
Self- disorder, and your peers know about it,
thoughts
esteem then they see you differently. It can make
you a target.”
 How does the school environment
influence this complex relationship?
negative positive

Teachers low Mental health

expectations education

Poor response School identification

Changing or Non-
avoiding stigmatising of
school mental health
Lack of
understanding Support for
within school mental health

Mental
Bullying
health
 What can you do to minimise the
impact?
Effective practice can be grouped into three
broad categories:

• Communicate
• Anticipate
• Respond

Lets explore the issues…

 Communicate
What can we learn about effective
communication from these thoughts from
young people?

“You want to know that they won’t tell anyone, so

you feel secure.”

“[After I had talked about the bullying and nothing

happened] I started to get really angry. They
[teachers] hadn’t listened. Made me feel I
couldn’t talk to anyone. I started to get really
angry and taking it out on my [family] at home,
because no one had listened to me.”
 Anticipate
What can we learn about anticipating risk?

“In films and stuff it’s like one on one in the corridor, but like these
days, it’s more like groups and you feel like everyone is surrounding
you and stuff, which makes it harder to spot, because if it was one to
one and you saw them ... but in a group, they do it in a way that a
teacher can’t see. Looks like friendship from the outside.”

“Teachers need to pick up on that [isolation and vulnerability] and

take an active role in asking, rather than waiting to be told. I think
especially with young people with mental health, I think a lot are less
likely to come forward and say ‘I’m being bullied’ and say this is
what’s happening to me. Teachers need to be on the look out. To
intervene.”
 Respond
What can we learn about effective responding
from these thoughts from young people?

“I think the worst thing teachers can do is if you say there’s a

problem and they say, ‘OK I’ll talk to them’ then it makes it worse.
Because you’re like I told you confidence and now it looks a hundred
times worse.”

“It’s all played out on this big stage, so you’re like ‘everyone will
know I’ve gone and told, everyone will think I’m a snitch.’ I’m going
to get picked on more.”
 Effective practice will:
• Provide support to enable the young person to develop and try out
ways of dealing with the bullying, before further intervention from
others
• Be proactive in noticing changes in children and young people’s
behaviour and approaching them to offer care, time and support
• Identify bullying that is going unrecognised and unreported
– Be alert to the signs
– Watch out for those at risk
• Ensure young people are supported with their mental health
• Listen when bullying is reported
• Consider the needs of both the victim and the bully
• Ensure your language and behaviour does not stigmatise mental
health
– E.g. using the word crazy
• Use positive rewards to improve self-esteem
 Whole school actions

• Whole school policy on bullying

– Interventions and responding
• Teaching and learning about mental health
• Support for children with mental health
• Challenge stigma
– non-discriminatory language and
environment
 Effective practice will:
• Ensure young people know where to go and
who to speak to about bullying
• Provide support for the bully as well as the
victim
• Detect and monitor bullying
• Treat any report of bullying as valid
• Promote positive school-wide ethos towards
mental health issues
Key messages (repeated!)
• Children who are bullied and/or bully others
are more likely to have mental health issues
• Children who bully others have often been
bullied
• Bullying can have a detrimental impact on a
child’s mental health
• There are specific issues to consider when
responding to bullying of children who have
mental health issues