Mental Health Vulnerabilities Increase Risk of Exposure to Bullying



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Using a multi-polygenic score approach, researchers found that pre-existing mental health vulnerabilities were risk factors for exposure to bullying.

Previous phenotypic observation studies have revealed multiple vulnerabilities and individual characteristics that may be at the origin of bullying, including pre-existing mental health issues. Jean Baptiste PingaultPhD, from the Department of Clinical Psychology, Education and Health at University College London, and his colleagues have written JAMA Psychiatry. However, no systematic survey of independent risk factors, reflecting a wide range of non-overlapping vulnerabilities and characteristics, has been conducted.

Pingault and colleagues used 35 polygenic scores as genetic indicators to study the role of a range of individual vulnerabilities in mental health and traits related to cognition, personality, physical measures, and negative controls. as risk factors for intimidation experienced during childhood and adolescence.

They determined exposure to bullying based on reports of 8, 10, and 13 year olds reported by the Longitudinal Survey of Parents and Children in Canada. Avon, by calculating the average score according to the schedule of interview for intimidation and friendship (BFIS) according to age. To test the link between indexed traits and exposure to bullying, they adapted simple and multi-polygenic score regression models.

A total of 5,028 genotyped children with data on exposure to bullying were included in the badysis and 4,391 reported some form of exposure to the disease. ;intimidation.

The badysis of the 35 polygenic scores revealed that 10 were independently linked to bullying:

  • depression diagnosis (standardized b = 0.083; 95% CI, 0.054-0.112);
  • depression symptoms (normalized b = 0.042; 95% CI, 0.014-0.071);
  • well-being (standardized b = -0.036; 95% CI, -0.064 to -0.007);
  • ADHD (standardized b = 0.085; 95% CI, 0.056-0.113);
  • schizophrenia (standardized b = 0.038, 95% CI, 0.008-0.068);
  • IQ (standardized b = -0.047; 95% CI, -0.075 to -0.019);
  • level of instruction (standardized b = -0.042; 95% CI, -0.07 to -0.013);
  • risk taking (standardized b = 0.052; 95% CI, 0.023-0.08);
  • BMI (standardized b = 0.055; 95% CI, 0.027-0.083); and
  • extreme BMI (standardized b = 0.039; 95% CI, 0.01-0.067).

However, multivariate badyzes showed that five polygenic scores were related to exposure to bullying, with the most important badociations observed in terms of genetic risk related to mental health vulnerabilities: (standardized) depression. b = 0.065; 95% CI, 0.035-0.095) and ADHD (normalized b = 0.063; 95% CI, 0.035-0.091). The other three were: risk taking (standardized b = 0.041; 95% CI, 0.013-0.069), BMI (normalized b = 0.036; 95% CI, 0.008-0.064) and IQ (normalized b = -0.031; 95% CI, -0.059 to 0.003).

"Once sufficiently large genotyped samples containing data on bullying will be available, future studies could use genetic variants to refine the pathways in a structural equation modeling framework and explore the possible interactions between the gene and the environment, "wrote Pingault and his colleagues. "Such research could help improve mechanistic understanding and identify factors that contribute to protection (for example, social support, mental health interventions, and the type of school) that may help alleviate some of the problems. effects of pre-existing vulnerabilities. " – by Savannah Demko

reisclosure: The authors do not report any relevant financial information.

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