From risk to resilience: rethinking anti-bullying interventions to improve mental health outcomes

Being bullied has been described as one of the most tractable risk factors for mental health, and yet the link between bullying and poor mental health is a complex, multifactorial one. Drawing on resilience theory, this paper highlights the importance of protective factors at various levels, including individual, family, school, and community. There is a relative lack of high-quality research investigating protective factors that promote resilience among bullied children. I propose that identifying causal protective factors through rigorous research methods will help build more effective multisystemic interventions. These interventions should target different socioecological risk and protective factors to improve outcomes for bullied children. By integrating knowledge from diverse domains, such as effective parenting programmes and school-based interventions, we may develop more comprehensive approaches to support children’s overall social and emotional functioning.