McMaster Teen Study: Understanding the long-term relations between peer victimization, mental health, and academic achievement

Lead by Dr. Vaillancourt, the MAC-CURA team consists of University scholars and community agencies, groups, and individuals who have come together with a shared goal of reducing bullying among children and youth. Since 2008, Dr. Vaillancourt and her research team have been working in conjunction with the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board on the MAC-Teen Study, a project aimed at understanding the longitudinal associations between peer victimization, mental health, and academic achievement.

To date, annual data on over 500 teens and their parents have been collected; from the time participants were in grade 5 (age 10/Time 1), until now, age 19 (Time 9). We have received funding to follow participants for another 5 years (through age 24).  The study has received support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the Ontario Mental Health Foundation.

Some key findings:

1. The prevalence of mental disorders among participants at each time point is about 18% (across all disorders). Although this may seem high, it is in fact consistent with other published reports (see Vaillancourt & Boylan, 2010 for review).

2. Students scoring higher on symptoms of mental health disorders (i.e., depression, anxiety, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, and conduct disorder) tend to do less well academically than students without mental health issues. This finding remains even after controlling for important known predictors of academic achievement (i.e., sex, family income, maternal education, grade 3 standardized test scores, and days absent).

3. Over time, peer victimized students attend school less often than their non-abused peers.

4. Examining peer victimization and depression over time revealed that being bullied precedes depression. These findings highlight the importance of addressing bullying in the classroom as it has been shown to impact students across a full range of functioning such as mental health and academic achievement.

For more information on the MAC-CURA project please visit www.mac-cura.ca