Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Observational Study
. 2015 Jun 2:350:h2469.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.h2469.

Peer victimisation during adolescence and its impact on depression in early adulthood: prospective cohort study in the United Kingdom

Lucy Bowes  1 , Carol Joinson  2 , Dieter Wolke  3 , Glyn Lewis  4
Affiliations
Observational Study

Peer victimisation during adolescence and its impact on depression in early adulthood: prospective cohort study in the United Kingdom

Lucy Bowes et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the strength of the association between victimisation by peers at age 13 years and depression at 18 years.

Design: Longitudinal observational study.

Setting: Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a UK community based birth cohort.

Participants: 6719 participants who reported on peer victimisation at age 13 years.

Main outcome measures: Depression defined according to international classification of diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10) criteria, assessed using the clinical interview schedule-revised during clinic assessments with participants when they were aged 18 years. 3898 participants had data on both victimisation by peers at age 13 years and depression at age 18 years.

Results: Of the 683 participants who reported frequent victimisation at age 13 years, 101 (14.8%) were depressed according to ICD-10 criteria at 18 years; of the 1446 participants reporting some victimisation at age 13 years, 103 (7.1%) were depressed at age 18 years; and of the 1769 participants reporting no victimisation at age 13 years, 98 (5.5%) were depressed at age 18 years. Compared with children who were not victimised those who were frequently victimised by peers had over a twofold increase in odds of depression (odds ratio 2.96, 95% confidence interval 2.21 to 3.97, P<0.001). This association was slightly reduced when adjusting for confounders (2.32, 1.49 to 3.63, P<0.001). The population attributable fraction suggested that 29.2% (95% confidence interval 10.9% to 43.7%) of depression at age 18 years could be explained by peer victimisation if this were a causal relation.

Conclusion: When using observational data it is impossible to be certain that associations are causal. However, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that victimisation by peers in adolescence is associated with an increase in the risk of developing depression as an adult.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare: no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years, and no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

None
Flowchart of participants in Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Republished in

Comment in

References

    1. World Health Organization. Global burden of disease: 2004 update. WHO, 2008. www.who.int/topics/global_burden_of_disease/en/.
    1. Jaffee SR, Moffitt TE, Caspi A, et al. Influence of adult domestic violence on children’s internalizing and externalizing problems: an environmentally informative twin study. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2002;41:1095-103. - PubMed
    1. Stallard P, Sayal K, Phillips R, Taylor JA, et al. A classroom based cognitive behavioural therapy in reducing symptoms of depression in high risk adolescents: pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ 2012;345 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Prinstein M, Aikins J. Cognitive moderators of the longitudinal association between peer rejection and adolescent depressive symptoms. J Abnorm Child Psychol 2004;32:147-58. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hawker DS, Boulton MJ. Twenty years’ research on peer victimization and psychosocial maladjustment: a meta-analytic review of cross-sectional studies. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2000;41:441-55. - PubMed

Publication types