Benefits of Bullying? A Test of the Evolutionary Hypothesis in Three Cohorts.
Tina KretschmerChaïm la RoiRozemarijn van der PloegRené VeenstraPublished in: Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence (2021)
Recent work on bullying perpetration includes the hypothesis that bullying carries an evolutionary advantage for perpetrators in terms of health and reproductive success. We tested this hypothesis in the National Child Development Study (n = 4998 male, n = 4831 female), British Cohort Study 1970 (n = 4261 male, n = 4432 female), and TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (n = 486 male, n = 521 female), where bullying was assessed in adolescence (NCDS, BCS70: age 16, TRAILS: age 14) and outcomes in adulthood. Partial support for the evolutionary hypothesis was found as bullies had more children in NCDS and engaged in sexual intercourse earlier in TRAILS. In contrast, bullies reported worse health in NCDS and BCS70.
Keyphrases
- mental health
- young adults
- public health
- healthcare
- genome wide
- depressive symptoms
- high school
- health information
- magnetic resonance
- men who have sex with men
- cross sectional
- dna methylation
- magnetic resonance imaging
- computed tomography
- risk assessment
- health promotion
- intimate partner violence
- contrast enhanced
- metabolic syndrome