Aim: Childhood bullying may negatively affect the mental health in children andadolescents, but few studies have explored this potential link. We aimed to investigate theassociation between childhood bullying and the impact of poor mental health on the dailylife in a population of Nordic children and adolescents aged 5–16 years.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was based on data from the Nordic survey onChildren’s Health and Wellbeing (NordChild) from 2011. The study population included 4966 children from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Mental health wasmeasured by a parent-reported version of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. Weconducted multiple logistic regression analyses to estimate the odds ratios of poor mentalhealth in bullied compared to non-bullied children and adolescents while adjusting for sex,age, body mass index and parental socioeconomic status.

Results: Bullied children and adolescents were four times more likely than their nonbulliedpeers to have mental health problems with negative impact on their daily life athome, in their relations to friends, learning in school or leisure activities (adjusted oddsratio: 4.32; 95% CI: 3.54–5.26).

Conclusion: This study found negative impact on the mental health in bullied children andadolescents, which affected several arenas of daily life.