LAUSR

Bullying experiences in outpatients of a child and adolescent psychotherapy centre - A particularly vulnerable group? Abstract. Objective: Bullying has both short- and long-term effects on physical and mental health. Thus, more victimized children might tend to be found in clinical samples. This is the first study to examine the prevalence of bullying roles and modes in children/adolescents in a psychotherapeutic outpatient setting in Germany. Method: 298 outpatients being treated in a child/adolescent psychotherapy centre (6-20 years, 50.7 % female) completed a questionnaire concerning their bullying experiences over the last 6 months. Results: 24.5 % of the patients reported from a victim's perspective, independent of being perpetrators of bullying. 19.1 % reported solely as victims, 5.4 % as victims who also bullied (bully-victims), and 2.0 % as bullies. More than one-third of those with victim or bully-victim experiences had been polyvictimized, 86.2 % were victims solely of traditional bullying, and 1.4 % solely of cyberbullying. The exploratory comparison to general-population school samples seems to show significantly more patients with victim experiences and significantly less patients who bullied others. There seem to be no significant effects for bully-victims. Compared to an inpatient sample, significantly fewer adolescent patients seem to state being victims or bully-victims. Conclusions: Bullying is a topic of particular importance in the context of psychotherapy. These findings have implications for the psychotherapeutic practice as well as training settings.