Linking Adolescent Bullying Perpetration With Adult Fertility: Two Preliminary Studies

Researchers have suggested that bullying perpetration is, at least in part, an evolved adaptation. A key prediction of this evolutionary perspective is that bullying facilitates the transmission of genes from one generation to the next. To date, only one study (using a limited measure of bullying) has examined the link between adolescent bullying and adult fertility, showing a positive association between adolescent bullying and number of children in adulthood. We sought to replicate and expand this unique finding using a more robust measure of adolescent bullying and young adults’ parental status in a prospective longitudinal study of Canadians (Study 1), along with an MTurk study of retrospective adolescent bullying and current adult fertility (Study 2). In support of an evolutionary theory of bullying, we found that higher bullying was associated with having children in young adulthood (ages 23 and/or 24 years, Study 1) and that retrospective reports of adolescent bullying were associated with having more children in adulthood (Study 2). Overall, our studies offer additional support for the idea that adolescent bullying is, at least in part, an evolutionary adaptation that may help individuals to later pass on their genes to future generations through enhanced reproductive and perhaps parental effort. Although needing replication, our data highlight the importance of considering reproductive outcomes when designing future bullying research or interventions.