Digital Smarts - Bullying Hurts

Knowing that bullying is becoming more and more pervasive, it is disheartening to find that a new study shows bullying may actually be affecting children's brains. Researchers at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles found that students who reported high levels of peer harassment at age 9 showed significant differences in brain structures at age 14. The amygdala, associated with the ability to process emotions and react to stress, was larger in volume among 14-year-olds who had been bullied as children. Moreover, previously bullied adolescents had thinner temporal and prefrontal cortexes, areas critical for processing information and regulating behavior.

The study comes in the wake of new research on changes in the brain caused by early, "toxic" stress, such as parental neglect or abuse. While stress from peer harassment is not generally as severe a trauma as something like the death of a parent, these results suggest even moderate chronic stress can affect students' brain development in ways that could interfere with learning and behavior in school. This research also gives even more evidence of the need to understand and disrupt cycles of bullying in school and online.