London: Young adults, who were bullied as a child, are at significantly greater risk of depression due to a mix of genetic and environmental factors, a study has found.
Using detailed mood and feelings questionnaires and genetic information from 3,325 teenagers who were part of Bristol’s Children of the 90s study, researchers found that childhood bullying was strongly associated with trajectories of depression that rise at an early age.
Children who continued to show high depression into adulthood were also more likely to have genetic liability for depression and a mother with postnatal depression. However, children who were bullied but did not have any genetic liability for depression showed much lower depressive symptoms as they become young adults.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, found that young adults who were bullied as children were eight times more likely to experience depression that was limited to childhood.
However, some children who were bullied showed greater patterns of depression that continued into adulthood and this group of children also showed genetic liability and family risk, it said.
