Maltreatment by Parents and Peers: The Relationship between Child Abuse, Bully Victimization, and Psychological Distress

Abstract

In this retrospective study, 210 college freshmen completed questionnaires assessing frequency of childhood emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; childhood bully victimization by peers; and current psychological distress. It was found that those who were bully victims experienced higher rates of emotional (M = 25.57 vs. 17.01) and physical maltreatment (M = 2.96 vs. 0.94) by parents and more childhood sexual assaults (29% vs. 9%) than those who were not childhood bully victims. It was also found that as young adults, those who were victims of both abuse and bullying in childhood reported significantly higher levels of distress on the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised Global Severity Index (T = 67.33) than those who were abused but not bullied (60.91), were bullied but not abused (59.75), or were nonvictims of abuse or bullying (59.44). In addition, having received injuries, which required medical treatment, as a result of being bullied and frequency of verbal bullying explained a significant proportion of the variance in distress above that already explained by a history of child abuse.