The Prevalence of Bullying Victimization and Perpetration Among the School-Aged Population in Chinese Communities: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Psychological maltreatment by teachers and peer victimization in Chinese youth: Depression and aggression as mediators

BACKGROUND

Psychological maltreatment by teachers and peer victimization are significant public health issues among youth. However, few studies have verified transactional associations between psychological maltreatment by teachers and peer victimization at the within-person level and the mediating roles of depression and aggression have yet to be fully evaluated.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the transactional associations between psychological maltreatment by teachers and peer victimization from middle childhood to early adolescence, separating within- and between-person variation. The study also examined whether youth's depression and aggression mediated the associations.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

A total of 4945 Chinese youth (Mage = 9.92 years, SD = 0.73 53 % boys) completed a packet of measures on five occasions at 6-month intervals from May of 2017 to May of 2019.

METHODS

Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models (RI-CLPMs) were used to distinguish between- and within-person effects.

RESULTS

The results indicated that: (a) Psychological maltreatment by teachers predicted peer victimization, and vice versa; (b) Depression (but not aggression) mediated the associations from peer victimization to psychological maltreatment by teachers.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings supported bidirectional spillover effects between adverse teacher-student and peer interactions and demonstrated at the within-person level that such effects were transmitted indirectly via youth's depression.

A longitudinal study of the relationships among competency-based teasing, positivity, and depressive symptoms in Chinese children: Highlighting gender differences

Competency-based teasing has been identified as a risk factor for children's depressive symptoms. However, the specific psychological mechanisms mediating this relationship are not well understood, especially in the context of Chinese culture. This study examined the relationship between competency-based teasing, subsequent depressive symptoms, and the possible mediating role of positivity in Chinese children by using parallel process latent growth curve modelling. Gender differences were also explored. A sample of 4376 Chinese children (55.1% boys; age: M = 9.98 years, SD = 0.88) completed measurements of the relevant constructs on five occasions across 2 years, using half-year intervals. The findings revealed that competency-based teasing was significantly positively associated with subsequent depressive symptoms in Chinese children. Furthermore, positivity mediated this relationship in girls, but not in boys. The results suggest that positivity-cultivating and gender-specific interventions may be effective to reduce the risk of depressive symptoms in Chinese children.

Parents' attitudes, perceptions and coping strategies regarding school bullying

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to record parents' knowledge and attitudes towards bullying experienced by their children and to explore the strategies they choose to manage bullying incidents.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted. The study population consisted of parents of children who have experienced bullying in a primary or secondary school classroom. The "Parents' Strategies to Cope with Bullying" questionnaire was used to collect data. Regarding parents' coping with bullying, the strategy "Support and advice to the child" scored the highest and the strategy "Social support and information" the next highest.

RESULTS

Of the parents, 44.3 % had received some information/education regarding the phenomenon of bullying with the most important source of information being reading. According to the results of multivariate linear regression, mothers more often applied the strategy "social support and information" (Coefficient b=0.9, 95 % CI for b=0.7 to 1.1, p<0.001) and parents with lower educational level more often applied the strategy "avoidance" (Coefficient b=-0.5, 95 % CI for b=-0.8 to -0.2, p=0.004).

CONCLUSIONS

School bullying remains a major worldwide phenomenon over time. Although parents choose to support their children, they do not receive information and training on how to manage bullying from a formal institution, making the need for such programs imperative.

Social Anxiety and Peer Victimization and Aggression: Examining Reciprocal Trait-State Effects among Early Adolescents

As peer relationships become paramount during early adolescence, there's a normative rise in social anxiety, coinciding with a peak in peer victimization and aggression. Although previous studies have suggested reciprocal associations between changes in social anxiety and adolescent peer victimization and aggression, the mechanics of these associations at the personal trait and time-varying state levels remains unclear. This study examined the longitudinal relations between social anxiety and adolescent peer victimization and aggression by disentangling between-person trait differences from within-person state processes. A total of 4731 Chinese early adolescents (44.9% girls; M age = 10.91 years, SD = 0.72) participated in a four-wave longitudinal study with 6-month intervals. Random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) was applied. The results revealed higher levels of social anxiety are associated with more peer victimization and aggression at the between-person trait level. At the within-person state level, adolescent social anxiety, and adolescent physical victimization and physical aggression, reciprocally predicted each other. Relational victimization significantly predicted an increase of social anxiety, but not vice versa. Social anxiety positively predicted relational aggression over time, whereas the effect of relational aggression on social anxiety was only observed at the initial stage of early adolescence. These findings highlight that various types of victimization and aggression might exhibit unique reciprocal associations with social anxiety. Distinguishing between the within-person state and between-person trait effects is crucial in research that informs the co-development of adolescent peer victimization, aggression, and social anxiety.

The interaction effects of social support and four types of bullying on sleep quality in Chinese adolescents

OBJECTIVES

The aims of this study were to examine the association of verbal, social, physical, and cyber bullying victimizations with sleep quality while taking social support as a moderator and to further examine gender and grade differences in the moderating effects of social support on bullying-associated sleep quality among Chinese adolescents.

METHODS

An online cross-sectional survey was conducted in a province of northwestern China. A total of 20,320 students were included in our analyses. Multivariable linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between bullying victimization and sleep quality as well as the moderating effects of social support on these relationships.

RESULTS

After adjusting for confounding variables, four types of bullying victimization were significantly associated with sleep quality. Social support only moderated the relationship of verbal, physical, and social bullying with sleep quality. Moreover, these positive moderating effects were found only for girls and, in terms of grade difference, only for primary students. Some reversed moderating effects of social support were also observed in the relationship of cyber, physical bullying with sleep quality.

LIMITATIONS

This was a cross-sectional study, limiting the causal inference.

CONCLUSIONS

This study revealed that bullying is a risk factor for poor sleep quality among adolescents in northwestern China. Furthermore, social support moderated the relationship between bullying and sleep quality in different ways depending on grade, gender, and type of bullying. More efforts are needed to prevent bullying and improve both school climate and students' sleep quality.

Did the prevalence of traditional school bullying increase after COVID-19? Evidence from a two-stage cross-sectional study before and during COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 has had a range of adverse effects on the behavior and mental health of adolescents globally, including bullying, anxiety and depression. However, there is a lack of comparative studies on the changes of school bullying before and during COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the changes in traditional bullying before and during COVID-19 pandemic and reveal the related risk factors in Shantou, China.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Two samples of secondary school students were collected in 2018 and 2021 in Shantou, respectively.

METHODS

Bullying history and risk behaviors of students were measured in the past six months. The χ² test was used to analyze differences in baseline information and bullying types. The binary logistic regression with Forward LR method was used to analyze factors that affect the risk of bullying victimization and perpetration before and during COVID-19.

RESULTS

A total of 5782 secondary school students were included, 3071 before COVID-19 pandemic and 2711 during COVID-19. The prevalence of different types of victimization and perpetration all increased during COVID-19 (P < 0.001). Boarding, being a lower secondary school student (as opposed to upper secondary school), being male (as opposed to female), drinking, and playing violent video games were shared risk factors for bullying victimization and perpetration. Living in an urban (as opposed to rural and island) was a risk factor for perpetration. Smoking was a risk factor for perpetration. All differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

We found that the prevalence of bullying victimization as well as perpetration increased during COVID-19. It suggests that we need to pay more attention to traditional school bullying prevention and control in China in the pandemic context.

Involvement in bullying and sleep disorders in Chinese early adolescents

Background

School bullying may cause sleep disorders in early adolescents. Here, we determined the relationship between school bullying (considering all the features of bullying involvement) and sleep disorders, which are the common problems in Chinese early adolescents.

Materials and methods

We conducted a questionnaire survey among 5,724 middle school students from Xuancheng, Hefei, and Huaibei cities in Anhui province, China. The self-report questionnaires included the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. We used latent class analysis to identify the potential subgroups of bullying behavior. Logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the association between school bullying and sleep disorders.

Results

Active participants in bullying interactions, including the bullies and victims, reported higher levels of sleep disorders compared with the non-active participants [Bully: physical (aOR = 2.62), verbal (aOR = 1.73), relational (aOR = 1.80), and cyber (aOR = 2.08); Victim: physical (aOR = 2.42), verbal (aOR = 2.59), relational (aOR = 2.61), and cyber (aOR = 2.81)]. A dose-response relationship was observed between the number of school bullying types and sleep disorders. In the context of bullying roles, bully-victims had the highest risk of reporting sleep disorders (aOR = 3.07, 95% CI: 2.55-3.69). We identified four potential categories of school bullying behaviors: low involvement in bullying, verbal and relational victims, medium bully-victims, and high bully-victims, and the highest frequency of sleep disorders was observed in the high bully-victims group (aOR = 4.12, 95% CI: 2.94-5.76).

Conclusion

Our findings indicate a positive correlation between bullying roles and sleep disorders in early adolescents. Therefore, targeted intervention for sleep disorders should include an evaluation of bullying experiences.

Previous School Bullying-Associated Depression in Chinese College Students: The Mediation of Personality

Previous school bullying was associated with increased risk of depression in students. However, little was known about the role of the Big Five personality traits in this association. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible mediation by the Big Five personality traits in this association in a large group of Chinese college students, and to provide help for educators to prevent students from serious psychological and mental diseases caused by school bullying. Random stratified cluster sampling was used to survey 2152 college students ranging from freshmen to seniors at three universities in Qiqihar city, Heilongjiang Province, China. The risk factors for previous school bullying included gender, living expenses per month, caregivers, parents often quarreling, and divorced parents. Males were more likely to be bullied at school than females. The influencing factors of depression include gender, caregivers, living expenses per month, frequent parents quarreling, and parental divorce. Females were more prone to depression than males. Depression was significantly correlated with all dimensions of school bullying and the Big Five personality traits (p < 0.05). The Big Five personality traits were found to play a significant mediating role between depression and school bullying in up to 45% of cases involving depression. Our major findings highlighted the promising role of personality-based intervention measures in reducing the risk of depression associated with school bullying in Chinese students.