For years a phrase was repeated that today science has completely dismantled: “they are children's things, they will grow out of it.” The evidence says just the opposite. Bullying does not strengthen the character of those who suffer it; It fractures it, and the cracks can continue to open long after the last school bell has rung.

According to Unicef ??figures, bullying – whether physical, verbal, social or cyber – affects half of the world's children at some point in their lives.

What many families, teachers and even the victims themselves do not always realize is that the impact of this violence is not limited to the moment in which it occurs, but can extend for decades.

Mental health scars

Longitudinal studies—research that follows the same people for years or decades—are the ones that have best captured this reality. One of the most cited, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), found that adolescents who were frequent victims of bullying have up to four times the risk of suffering from mental health disorders later in life.

The pattern is repeated in research from different countries. According to findings from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, victims of bullying face a higher risk of developing mental health problems even years after being bullied. Among the most frequent diagnoses are depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, substance abuse and, in the most serious cases, suicidal ideation.

Specialists describe the mechanism behind this deterioration: sustained exposure to humiliation and abuse alters the way the body responds to stress, leaving anxiety that can become chronic. Many adults who were victims of bullying in their childhood continue to live with constant hypervigilance and fragile self-esteem, a direct consequence of those years of exposure to abuse.

There is even evidence of more severe neuropsychological effects. Some research has found that children who experienced prolonged bullying are more likely to experience psychotic symptoms—such as hallucinations or paranoid ideation—during adolescence, a phenomenon that experts link to the way chronic stress interacts with preexisting genetic predispositions.

Beyond the mind

Perhaps one of the most disturbing findings of recent research is that the consequences of bullying do not stop at the emotional level: they also shape the economic and work trajectories of those who suffered from it.

A five-decade follow-up study by researchers Takizawa, Maughan and Arseneault showed that people who were bullied in childhood are more likely to experience recurrent unemployment and job instability in adulthood, in addition to showing weaker indicators of general health.

More recent data go even further along this line: an analysis that followed different cohorts until age 62 found that having been a victim of bullying in childhood predicts lower subjective well-being, lower odds of maintaining stable employment and, alarmingly, a higher risk of mortality before age 55, even when discounting the effect of other adversities experienced during childhood.

Reading this data points to what researchers call a “cumulative effect”: the academic difficulties that arise during bullying—low performance, absenteeism, loss of motivation—translate over time into disadvantages that carry over into adulthood, making it difficult to access stable work and economic opportunities.

The aggressor and the spectators do not escape unscathed either.

The focus is usually, rightly, on the person who is harassed. But the evidence also indicates that those who attack and those who observe without intervening bear their own consequences. Children who play the role of aggressors often lack appropriate social skills to interact healthily with their peers, and some studies warn of a greater propensity to develop antisocial or criminal behavior in adulthood.

Spectators, for their part, are not exempt from harm. Witnessing abuse repeatedly can generate a progressive desensitization to the suffering of others, or establish the belief that violence between peers is simply inevitable—a normalization that also has long-term social costs.

The importance of naming pain

Faced with this panorama, specialists agree on one point: the longer the harassment continues, the more intense and lasting the consequences are. Hence the urgency of early detection, both at home and at school.

For those who already carry these wounds in adulthood, the good news is that there are paths to recovery. Psychological therapy, particularly cognitive-behavioral approaches and techniques such as EMDR (for processing traumatic experiences), has shown effective results in helping victims redefine what they have experienced. Specialists insist that the first step toward healing begins with something simple but powerful: validating the pain of the person who suffered it and letting them know that what happened was never their fault.

Bullying, researchers agree today, is not a rite of passage or a test that “builds character.” It is a public health problem with measurable, long-lasting and, in many cases, preventable consequences.