ABSTRACT
A substantive body of research confi rms that there are damaging outcomes for victims, especially when the bullying is long-term. The experience undermines children’s capacity to trust others and frequently results in social isolation (Boulton et al., 1999; LaGreca and Harrison 2005; Marini et al., 2006; Nangle et al. 2003). It affects the victims’ physical, psychological and social health and well-being (Espelage et al., 2000; Gini and Pozzoli, 2009; Ttofi et al., 2011) by heightening their feelings of loneliness and by undermining their sense of self (Glover et al., 2000). Hawker and Boulton (2000), in a meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies of bullying carried out between 1978 and 1997, found that the experience of being bullied was positively associated with depression; victims of bullying were consistently more depressed than non-victims. Similarly, they found that loneliness was also positively associated with the experience of being bullied. Both social and generalised anxiety was signifi cantly related to bullying, though the effects were not as strong as those for depression. Bullied children were also found to have signifi cantly lower self-esteem than non-victims.
