Bullying
Bullying is repeated aggressive behaviour involving real or perceived power imbalance, occurring across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Bullying victimization is associated with substantial mental-health consequences including depression, anxiety, PTSD, suicide risk, and lasting effects into adulthood.
Overview
Bullying is repeated aggressive behaviour involving an actual or perceived power imbalance between the perpetrator and the target. Bullying occurs in childhood and adolescent contexts (school, sports, online) but also in adult contexts (workplace, family, intimate relationships, community). The defining features — repetition, intent to harm, power imbalance — distinguish bullying from one-time conflict or mutual aggression.
Bullying is not a DSM-5-TR diagnosis; the DSM-5-TR addresses related conditions including PTSD when bullying meets Criterion A trauma, depression and anxiety disorders that often follow bullying, and Adjustment Disorders. The Z-codes include “Personal History of Spouse or Partner Violence” and “Acute Stress Reaction” relevant to bullying contexts.
Forms of bullying include: physical bullying (hitting, pushing, physical intimidation); verbal bullying (name-calling, threats, insults); social/relational bullying (exclusion, rumor-spreading, social-status harm); cyberbullying (online harassment, social-media targeting, doxxing, image-based abuse); workplace bullying (sustained mistreatment by supervisor or colleagues); sibling bullying; and identity-based bullying (race, gender, sexuality, religion, disability targeted).
Population data: approximately 25-30% of Canadian children and adolescents report being bullied; approximately 15-20% report being perpetrators; approximately 5-10% are bully-victims (both targets and perpetrators). Workplace bullying affects approximately 10-15% of Canadian adults at some point.
Bullying victimization is associated with substantial mental-health consequences: elevated rates of depression, anxiety, PTSD, eating disorders, substance use disorders, self-harm, suicide attempts and completions, and lasting impact into adulthood. Bullying perpetration is associated with conduct disorder, antisocial outcomes, and elevated risk of subsequent criminal involvement. Bully-victims have the worst outcomes of all groups.
Effective treatment is available. Trauma-focused therapy for bullying victims, evidence-based programs for bullying prevention and intervention, and structural changes in schools, workplaces, and communities all reduce bullying harm. Recovery from bullying-related mental-health consequences is the typical outcome with appropriate support.
Signs and symptoms
- Anxiety symptoms — Hypervigilance, social anxiety, panic, generalized anxiety — particularly anchored to school, work, online environments, or specific contexts where bullying occurred.
- Depression — Persistent low mood, hopelessness, anhedonia, suicidal ideation following or during sustained bullying.
- PTSD symptoms — When bullying meets Criterion A or produces functionally analogous trauma response — intrusion, avoidance, negative cognition/mood, hyperarousal.
- School or work avoidance — School refusal, increased absenteeism, work avoidance, reduced engagement in contexts where bullying occurred.
- Social withdrawal — Reduced social engagement, isolation, difficulty trusting peers, avoidance of group situations.
- Sleep and somatic symptoms — Sleep disruption, headaches, gastrointestinal symptoms, frequent illness — common in bullying victims, particularly children.
- Self-harm and suicide risk — Self-injurious behaviour, suicidal ideation, planning, or attempts. Bullying is a significant risk factor for adolescent suicide.
- Identity and self-worth impact — Internalization of bullies' messages; persistent low self-worth; identity disturbance — may persist long after bullying ends.
- Hypervigilance to social cues — Persistent threat-scanning in social situations; catastrophic interpretation of ambiguous cues; difficulty trusting others.
- Long-term consequences — Lasting mental-health impacts into adulthood — depression, anxiety, PTSD, relationship difficulties, occupational difficulties.
Causes and risk factors
Bullying involvement is shaped by interaction of individual, peer, family, school/workplace, and broader contextual factors:
Risk factors for victimization: social difference (LGBTQ+, disability, racial minority, religious minority, immigrant status); social skills difficulties; pre-existing mental-health conditions; smaller body size or younger appearance; physical or developmental differences; previously being bullied; family difficulties.
Risk factors for perpetration: exposure to family violence; harsh or inconsistent parenting; childhood adversity; conduct disorder features; impulsivity; peer-group norms supporting aggression; status-seeking; modelling of bullying by adults.
School/workplace context: environmental factors (school climate, supervision, anti-bullying policies, leadership response, peer-group norms) substantially shape bullying prevalence and harm.
Online context: cyberbullying has distinctive features — 24/7 access, scale of audience, anonymity options, persistence of digital evidence, image-based abuse capability.
Cultural and structural factors: identity-based bullying reflects broader social prejudice; structural factors (anti-LGBTQ+ policy, racism, ableism) shape who is targeted and how.
Family factors: family communication, family awareness of bullying, family response to disclosure all affect outcomes.
Adult workplace bullying: organizational factors (leadership, policy, culture), power dynamics, and target characteristics all play roles.
Comorbidity: bullying victimization often co-occurs with other adversities; bullying perpetration often co-occurs with conduct problems and family difficulties.
Typical treatments
Treatment for bullying-related mental-health consequences includes:
Trauma-focused therapies for bullying victims:
- Trauma-Focused Cognitive behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT) — strong evidence for children and adolescents.
- EMDR — adapted for children and adolescents.
- Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) — adolescents and adults.
- Prolonged Exposure — adolescents and adults.
CBT for depression and anxiety — addresses cognitive consequences of bullying (negative self-evaluation, threat sensitivity, learned helplessness).
Social skills training and assertiveness training — addresses social skill gaps that may have contributed to victimization or that have developed in response.
Self-compassion-focused therapy — addresses internalized negative messaging; substantial evidence for trauma populations.
Group therapy — provides peer connection, normalization, and skill practice.
Family therapy — particularly important for child and adolescent bullying victims; supports family system’s capacity to respond to bullying.
School and workplace intervention: coordination with schools (anti-bullying programs, individual safety planning, bystander intervention) and workplaces (HR involvement, accommodations, possibly legal action when warranted).
For perpetrators: evidence-based programs including Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, KiVa, and targeted interventions for individual perpetrators (often combined with family work, conduct-disorder treatment, ADHD treatment when relevant).
Pharmacotherapy: SSRIs for comorbid depression and anxiety; medication for ADHD when relevant.
Crisis intervention for acute suicide risk.
Cyberbullying-specific interventions: digital safety planning, online identity management, evidence preservation for legal action when warranted, social-media-platform reporting.
When to seek help
Professional support is indicated when:
- You or your child is being bullied and is experiencing significant distress.
- Bullying is producing depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, school avoidance, or other functional impact.
- Suicide risk is present.
- Bullying has continued despite school or workplace involvement.
- You are processing the lasting impact of childhood bullying as an adult.
- You are experiencing workplace bullying.
- You are concerned that your child is bullying others.
- Cyberbullying involves images, doxxing, or threats requiring legal or platform-level intervention.
For youth: 1-800-668-6868 (Kids Help Phone, call or text CONNECT to 686868; 24/7); PREVNet (prevnet.ca) for bullying resources. For mental-health crisis: 9-8-8 (Suicide Crisis Helpline), 1-833-456-4566 (Talk Suicide Canada). For workplace bullying in Ontario: 1-800-268-7096 (Workplace Safety and Insurance Board); other provinces have similar boards. For LGBTQ+ youth: LGBT Youth Line at 1-800-268-9688.
Frequently asked questions
How is bullying different from conflict?
Will my child outgrow bullying impact?
What should I do if my child is being bullied?
Is cyberbullying as harmful as in-person bullying?
Can adults be bullied?
How long does treatment take?
References
- American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed., text rev.). APA.
- Olweus, D. (2013). School bullying: Development and some important challenges. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 9, 751–780.
- Copeland, W. E., et al. (2013). Adult psychiatric outcomes of bullying and being bullied by peers in childhood and adolescence. JAMA Psychiatry, 70(4), 419–426.
- PREVNet (Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network). (n.d.). Canadian bullying prevention resources.
- Hymel, S., & Swearer, S. M. (2015). Four decades of research on school bullying: An introduction. American Psychologist, 70(4), 293–299.
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ShiftGrit Psychology & Counselling is professionally regulated, certified, and recognized by leading psychology and mental-health organizations across Alberta and Canada. These associations reflect our commitment to ethical practice, clinical standards, and evidence-informed therapy through Identity-Level Therapy and Reconditioning.
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