As part of anti-bullying week 2024, we take a look at what our data tells us about bullying in children and young people, as well as the role our digital services Shout and The Mix are playing in supporting young people with bullying.
Bullying is a key issue impacting our service users; every day through our Shout text service, we take around 35 conversations with people who are being bullied. The lasting impact of bullying goes far beyond the moments the bullying itself is happening, and if left without support, victims of bullying can find themselves dealing with a range of ongoing issues including trauma, isolation, self-harm, low self-esteem and negative body image.
Through our recent merger with The Mix, we have been able to boost the pathways of free digital support being provided to children, young people and adults across the UK, by offering a range of online services and crisis text support.
Our anonymised dataset means we are able to obtain real time insights into the issues that are affecting young people’s mental health, enabling us to enhance and improve the services we offer.
What we know about bullying
Every day, around 2% of Shout conversations mention bullying as an issue. To date this year, we’ve taken around 10,000 conversations about bullying with around 6,000 texters; that’s around 35 conversations every single day.
Young people are more likely to discuss bullying, with our data showing that three quarters of conversations about bullying are with texters aged 13 or under, and 38% are with 14-17 year olds.
An analysis of conversations in 2022 which mentioned bullying showed that the majority of texters who experience bullying, are experiencing verbal forms of bullying (72%), around a third (35%) were experiencing social or relational bullying and around one in five (18%) were experiencing physical bullying. In almost half of these conversations (48%), texters mentioned being bullied in school by their peers.
From our insight we know that bullying can lead to other, longer-term mental health issues. Across all types of bullying, texters experienced a great sense of isolation, and often identified bullying as a catalyst for low self-esteem and negative body image. In the majority of conversations, bullying was the main presenting difficulty.
Some texters struggled with suicidal thoughts, urges to self-harm, insomnia, and feelings of depression and anxiety. Some referred to the anger, shame, fear, confusion, vulnerability, hopelessness or frustration that resulted from being bullied. Others spoke about their lack of focus and poor performance at school as a result of being bullied.
Conversations around bullying brought up other issues for texters too:
- Trauma: In some conversations, the bullying was historic but continued to impact texters, which highlights the long lasting effects of bullying. In most of these conversations, the bullying had occurred in school and texters remained traumatised long after the bullying stopped. Some texters described post-traumatic symptoms of panic attacks, flashbacks, nightmares, difficulty sleeping and social anxiety.
- Isolation: A majority of texters talked about being isolated, overwhelmed, and helpless. Many suffered in silence in fear of making matters worse if they were to tell someone, while others were too ashamed to talk to their parents or the school, or feared that nothing could be done to help.
- Self-harm: Some texters used self-harm to cope and, in turn, were increasingly bullied for their scars. They often hid both the bullying and self-harm from their support network. Sometimes texters’ friends would avoid them in fear of being bullied by proxy.
- Low self-esteem: In one in three conversations, texters talked about their dwindling self-esteem. As the bullying persisted, texters grew to internalise the bullying and developed a great sense of self-loathing and worthlessness. Many texters started to hate themselves and believed the bullying was justified.
- Negative body image: Texters who were bullied about their appearance were likely to have a negative body image. Texters grew to hate their bodies and features, they agreed that they are fat and ugly, and wished to change and look different. A minority of texters bullied about their weight and body shape restricted their calorie intake or over-exercised in an attempt to look different.
Additional insights from The Mix’s helpline report highlight a rise in the proportion of helpline conversations related to bullying or cyberbullying between 2018 and 2023. The findings reveal that 13-16 year-olds are three times more likely to seek support for bullying compared to older age groups. LGBTQIA+ young people are particularly vulnerable, with bullying occuring at three times the rate compared to among straight helpline users.
Encouraging early help-seeking behaviour is crucial to helping support victims of bullying from the harmful longer term effects bullying can have.
How we can support people in the moment
With nearly half of the conversations, bullying was taking place at school. It highlights the need for safe spaces where children and young people can get the right kind of support in the moment when they need it.
Via our services Shout and The Mix, we’re providing a range of support tailored to young people, providing them with multiple options and formats to get the help they need.
Through The Mix, anyone who is 25 years-old and younger can access The Mix, offering expert advice, peer support and resources to help them feel understood and connected. We offer:
- Peer Support: Connect with others through our Discussion Boards or join evening group chats.
- Counselling: Self-refer for 6-8 free sessions with a trained counsellor.
- Resources: Access a wide range of articles, guides and tools, covering topics like mental health, relationships and life skills.
- Chatbot: Get 24/7 help by using our free Chatbot anytime.
Through our text support service Shout, anyone can reach out day or night to be connected with a trained and empathetic volunteer who can listen and support them, providing coping strategies and resources that can help them take their next steps to dealing with the issues.
Across both services, young people have access to a range of support resources online at www.giveusashout.org/get-help/resources and www.themix.org.uk/get-support and via their social media channels.
This anti-bullying week, if you’re interested in finding out how you can partner with us to support more young people who are in mental health crisis, you can find out more below.
If you’re a parent, carer, teacher or mental health professional working to support young people in crisis, let them know about these free, 24/7, confidential support options. You can also read our blog on how to support a young person who is being bullied.
