Is childhood bullying involvement a precursor of eating disorder symptoms? A prospective analysis

Objective—Bullying is a common childhood experience with enduring psychosocial consequences. The aim of this study was to test whether bullying increases risk for eating disorder symptoms. Method—Ten waves of data on 1420 participants between ages 9 and 25 were used from the prospective population-based Great Smoky Mountains Study. Structured interviews were used to assess bullying involvement and symptoms of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa as well as associated features. Bullying involvement was categorized as not involved, bully only, victim only, or both bully and victim (bully-victims). Results—Within childhood/adolescence, victims of bullying were at increased risk for symptoms of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa as well as associated features. These associations persisted after accounting for prior eating disorder symptom status as well as preexisting Address for correspondence: William E. Copeland, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Box 3454, Durham NC 27710, [email protected]. Financial Disclosures Dr. Bulik is a consultant for Shire Pharmaceuticals. No other authors report a biomedical financial interest or potential conflict of interest. No authors have any conflicts of interest to report. HHS Public Access Author manuscript Int J Eat Disord. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2016 December 01. Published in final edited form as: Int J Eat Disord. 2015 December ; 48(8): 1141–1149. doi:10.1002/eat.22459. A uhor M anscript