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Four-fifths of respondents (85 per cent) in Wesley Mission’s ground-breaking survey of school bullying have admitted that their childhood bullying experience had affected their adult development.

The survey of 1200 adults found that schoolyard bullying had a crucial effect on the development of essential social (life) skills.

A number of respondents, even 30 years after leaving school, reported suffering depression and other mental illnesses and said they were loners in society because of the bullying they had suffered as children.

Other disturbing facts from Wesley Mission’s report Give kids a chance: No-one deserves to be left out are that:

Bullying causes immense unhappiness: half of those who had been bullied said they had looked unhappy and had been lonely and isolated during their schooldays.
Almost 40 per cent of respondents had been victims of pack bullying, which brings an ugly intensity to the bullying process.
Pack bullying occurred more frequently and lasted longer. Victims were far more demoralised by bullies acting as a group than as individuals.
Bullies felt less empathy with victims when they acted in packs.
Emotional bullying caused more harm than physical bullying.
Bullies who used emotional tactics also appeared to have low levels of self-esteem, many saying they “felt ashamed of their behaviour.

Read the full report and searing personal stories by bullies and victims.