Cruel cost

The physical and mental consequences for victims of bullying can be severe and long-lasting.

- Marc Wilson

As a researcher, I sometimes get asked for a bit more detail about studies I've published. The most recent came from a PhD student at King's College London, asking if I recalled the wording given to school participants in research a little over a decade ago looking at bullying experiences and mental health. She was specifically interested in knowing whether we'd provided a definition of "bullying" to our young participants before asking them if they had experienced peer victimisation.

Most people have experienced some form of peer victimisation. I was born in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), but moved to the UK when I was quite young and did all but one year of secondary school there. I remember being made fun of for being different, being nicknamed "Botha" after PW Botha, the sixth state president of South Africa. My schoolmates clearly didn't know the difference between Zimbabwe and South Africa. I also spent an acne-filled year or so being called "pizza face". But was I bullied?