Adolescent School Bullying Victimisation and Later Life Outcomes

Gorman, Emma and Harmon, Colm and Mendolia, Silvia and Staneva, Anita and Walker, Ian (2021) Adolescent School Bullying Victimisation and Later Life Outcomes. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 83 (4). pp. 1048-1076. ISSN 0305-9049

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Abstract

We analyse the long-term effects of experiencing bullying victimisation in junior high school, using rich data on a large 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 to 16 years. We assess the effects of bullying victimisation on short- and long-term outcomes, including educational achievements, earnings, and mental ill-health at age 25 years using a variety of estimation strategies - least squares, matching, and inverse probability weighting. We also consider attenuation associated with relying on self-reports. The detailed longitudinal data, linked to administrative data, allows us to control for many of the determinants of child outcomes that have been explored in previous literature, together with comprehensive sensitivity analyses, to assess the potential role of unobserved variables. The pattern of results strongly suggests that there are quantitatively important long run effects on victims – stronger than correlation analysis would otherwise suggest. In particular, we find that both type of bullying and its intensity matters for long run outcomes such as obtaining a degree, income, and mental health.