Stronger connections at school can help limit some of the harm from bullying, new research suggests. That good news could help millions of bullied kids worldwide. Roughly one in three U.S. teens, for instance, has been targeted within the past year. That’s according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Physical violence and threats are obvious forms of bullying. This abuse also includes insults, teasing, nasty rumors and social exclusion. Much of this now happens online.

Whatever its form, bullying hurts when it happens. But some of its impacts can persist. Bullied kids are more likely than others, for instance, to battle mental health problems.

The good news: Recently bullied teens were less likely to report some signs of mental health problems when they felt connected to others at school.

This connectedness thrives where there are “caring and supportive relationships among students and among teachers,” says Tiwaloluwa Ajibewa, who led the new study. He’s a health researcher at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Ill. There, he scouts clues to health problems as a first step toward limiting them.

His team reported its new findings August 14 in BMC Public Health.

Bullying often starts early

Ajibewa’s group pulled its data from nationwide surveys of 2,175 U.S. kids at ages 9 and 15. More than six in 10 of these kids reported having been bullied.

For 43 percent, that bullying had started by age 9. Just 6 percent reported being bullied for the first time when they were in high school.

Survey questions had asked about signs of mental health problems. Other questions gauged how connected students felt at school. Were they close to people there? Did they feel they were part of the school? Were they happy to be at school? Did they feel safe there?

On average, recently bullied teens and those bullied at both ages 9 and 15 faced a higher risk of depression than kids who weren’t bullied. But recently bullied teens who had a strong sense of school connectedness scored better in signs of depression than others who had been bullied recently.

Bullying may still happen to these kids. “Unfortunately,” Ajibewa says, “it’s a common thing.” But having people to turn to for support can reduce feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Both, he says, often come with depression.

These data show that “everyone has a part to play” in preventing bullying and reducing its harm, Ajibewa concludes.

Building connectedness

“This work really highlights the key role of feeling like you belong and are a part of your school community,” says Kelly Lynn Mulvey. She’s a psychologist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. To her, these data call for “making sure school is a warm, welcoming and inclusive space for kids.”

Amanda Barrett is a researcher and graduate student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She’s part of its Bullying Research and Victim Empowerment Lab. She likes how the new study emphasizes the social context of schools. “You can’t look at bullying as a finding in isolation,” she says.

Kids who bully others can often feel their schools are not supportive, Barrett notes. She wonders if a more connected environment could also help these kids, who themselves have often been (and may still be) targets of bullying.

Even non-bullied teens with a strong sense of connectedness at school had lower average depression scores than did those who didn’t feel that way.

The study didn’t find any strong link between school connectedness and anxiety. Nor did it show a link between after-school activities and either depression or anxiety. Then again, the survey questions and measurement tools may not have picked up such links, Ajibewa says. “While we didn’t see it, that doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

Such other activities can offer benefits, he notes. Maybe effects of extracurricular activities depend on the type and the individual. Some groups, Mulvey agrees, can be very helpful. Others, less so. Think about how an activity makes you feel when weighing whether to continue it, she suggests.

October is National Bullying Prevention Month in the United States. So it’s a great time to bolster kindness, acceptance and inclusion at school, says Judy French. She’s an educator with the National Bullying Prevention Center in Los Angeles, Calif.  “Reach out!” she urges. “Introduce yourself to people you don’t know. … Be a friend.” Also find an adult you could turn to if problems arise.

“And speak up if you see things you don’t like or if you’re experiencing things you don’t like with relationships,” French adds. “You are not alone.”