Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
New researchPreschool Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity and Oppositional Defiant Problems as Antecedents of School Bullying
Section snippets
Design
Our study was embedded in the Generation R Study, a large, population-based birth cohort in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The cohort was set up to study children’s health and development from fetal life onward. All pregnant women living in Rotterdam with an expected delivery date between April 2002 and January 2006 were invited to participate (baseline participation rate 61%).14 Regular assessments have been carried out in children and parents throughout the preschool period.14, 15 Full consent
Results
Children’s baseline characteristics are presented in Table 1. Based on teachers’ ratings, 69.9% of children were categorized as uninvolved in bullying, 14.1% as bullies, 4.2% as victims, and 11.8% as bully–victims. Proportions of bullying involvement in the peer/self-reported sample were as follows: 70.1% uninvolved in bullying, 10.8% bullies, 13.1% victims, and 6% bully–victims.
Discussion
ADHD and ODD at preschool age predicted children’s risk of bullying involvement in the first years of elementary school, suggesting a possible antecedent effect. These behavioral problems were associated with the risks of becoming a bully or a bully–victim, and, to a lesser extent, with becoming a (pure) victim.
By unfolding the temporal antecedence of early ADHD and ODD problems in relation to subsequent school bullying, we add to studies that primarily examined the concurrent social problems
References (48)
- et al.
Bullying and psychiatric symptoms among elementary school-age children
Child Abuse Neglect
(1998) - et al.
Identification of child maltreatment with the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales: development and psychometric data for a national sample of American parents
Child Abuse Neglect
(1998) - et al.
14-Year changes in emotional and behavioral problems of very young Dutch children
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
(2007) - et al.
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and problems in peer relations: predictions from childhood to adolescence
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
(2001) - et al.
Oppositional defiant and conduct disorder: a review of the past 10 years, part I
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
(2000) Bullying at School: What We Know and What We Can Do
(1993)- et al.
Prevalence of bullying and victimization among children in early elementary school: do family and school neighbourhood socioeconomic status matter?
BMC Public Health
(2012) - et al.
Peer victimization in fifth grade and health in tenth grade
Pediatrics
(2014) - et al.
Being bullied during childhood and the prospective pathways to self-harm in late adolescence
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
(2013) - et al.
Adult psychiatric outcomes of bullying and being bullied by peers in childhood and adolescence
JAMA Psychiatry
(2013)
What is the early adulthood outcome of boys who bully or are bullied in childhood? The Finnish “From a Boy to a Man” study
Pediatrics
Impact of bullying in childhood on adult health, wealth, crime, and social outcomes
Psychol Sci
Adult health outcomes of childhood bullying victimization: evidence from a five-decade longitudinal British birth cohort
Am J Psychiatry
School bullying and youth violence: causes or consequences of psychopathologic behavior?
Arch Gen Psychiatry
Bullying and the development of antisocial behavior
The worldwide prevalence of ADHD: a systematic review and metaregression analysis
Am J Psychiatry
Lifetime prevalence, correlates, and persistence of oppositional defiant disorder: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication
J Child Psychol Psychiatry
The Generation R Study: design and cohort update 2012
Eur J Epidemiol
The Generation R Study: a review of design, findings to date, and a study of the 5-HTTLPR by environmental interaction from fetal life onward
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
Detecting bullying in early elementary school with a computerized peer-nomination instrument
Psychol Assess
Practical Statistics for Medical Research
Understanding and researching bullying: some critical issues
Cross-informant agreement about bullying and victimization among eight-year-olds: whose information best predicts psychiatric caseness 10–15 years later?
Soc Psychiatr Epidemiol
Cited by (0)
The Generation R Study is conducted by the Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, the Municipal Health Service Rotterdam Area, and the Stichting Trombosedienst en Artsenlaboratorium Rijnmond (STAR), Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Generation R is made possible by financial support from the Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, and the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (NWO-ZonMw Geestkracht 10.000.1003). Additional grants were obtained from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (VIDI017.106.370 to H.T.), and from the Sophia Foundation for Medical Research SSWO (grant 602 to P.W.J.).
The authors greatly acknowledge the contribution of participating children and their parents, schools, general practitioners, hospitals, midwives, and pharmacies in the Rotterdam area.
Disclosure: Dr. Verhulst has received remuneration as contributing author of the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA). Dr. Shaw has received grant or research support from the Intramural Program of the National Institutes of Health. Drs. Verlinden, Jansen, Veenstra, Jaddoe, Hofman, and Tiemeier report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.