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Oxford Open Learning Trust report explores how bullying at school damages future career prospects
Impact of Bullying Report from Oxford Open Learning Trust shows the long-term impact being bullied at school has on career prospects. Almost one in three adults (29%) who were bullied at school say it had a negative impact on their future career prospects, new research from Oxford Open Learning Trust shows.
The Impact of Bullying Report from the distance learning provider sought to explore the long-term impact bullying at school had on UK adults and how this has changed over the past 50 years. Some 15% of UK adults polled by YouGov said they were bullied on one occasion while at school, while 42% claimed they were bullied more than once. When asked about the impact of bullying, 37% claimed being bullied had a negative impact on their academic performance and 64% said it negatively impacted their self-esteem. Overall, 29% said it had a negative impact on their career prospects; this figure rises to 57% of people who said it had a negative impact on academic performance also said that being bullied at school negatively affected their academic performance. More than one in ten of respondents who were bullied at school said it had a strong negative impact on their academic performance (13%) and career prospects (12%).
Oxford Open Learning Trust commissioned the study following anecdotal evidence that learners were enrolling on courses as a result of failing to achieve qualifications at school due to being bullied. The research also looked beyond academic performance and career prospects to the psychological - and in some cases physical - impact of being bullied at school.
Of those polled:
- 36% said being bullied at school affected their ability to make friends
- 27% said being bullied at school affected their mental health
- 12% said being bullied at school affected their physical health
- 16% said being bullied made them distrustful of people in authority
Three in ten (30%) respondents who were bullied at school said they turned to family members for support, with 18% seeking advice from friends and 16% speaking to their teachers.However, more than half (51%) of those polled said they never sought support and just 1% said they turned to an independent advice service or charity for support. Younger people were more likely to say they had sought support for bullying (64%). Women (49%) were also more likely than men (43%) to seek support for bullying.
Greg Smith, Head of Operations at Oxford Open Learning Trust, said: “For me, the standout statistic isn’t that people are bullied at school. Sadly, we all know that and few of us who work in education will have been surprised that more than half of people experience bullying at some point.
“Anecdotally, nearly half of the parents who enrol their children with Oxford Home Schooling list bullying amongst their reasons for doing so.The statistic from our survey which did surprise me was just how many people felt that the bullying had affected their academic performance and future careers. Bullying isn’t something that happens and then you shrug it off, it is something which follows you throughout your life.”
The full report can be found on the Oxford Open Learning Trust website http://www.ool.co.uk/media-center/impact-of-bullying-report/