Mental Health, Bullying, and Victimization among Chinese Adolescents

The Relationship between Campus Bullying and Depression: The Mediating Role of Personality

BACKGROUND

School bullying and depression have a great negative psychological impact on college students, and personality analysis is the key to the detection of psychopathological states. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the mediating effect of personality on depression and school bullying in college students.

METHOD

This cross-sectional study investigated the bullying situation in colleges and universities by using the Olweus Scale, the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The participants were 1200 college students. Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the data and the mediating effect of exposure, and the mediating effect was tested.

RESULTS

Spearman correlation analysis showed that bullying experience was associated with introversion (r = 0.702), neuroticism (r = 0.219) and depressive symptoms (r = 0.600), but was negatively correlated with extraversion (r = -0.537). Depressive symptoms were positively correlated with neuroticism (r = 0.279) and introversion (r = 0.611), but negatively correlated with extraversion (r = -0.469). In relationship between bullying and depression, neuroticism showed positively partially mediating effect and mediating effect ratio was 4.39% (β = 0.161, p < 0.05), and introversion had an obvious mediating effect and the ratio was 40% (β = 0.611, p < 0.001). Otherwise, extraversion partially mediated between campus bullying and depression adversely and mediating ratio is 8.75% (β = -0.359, p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Campus bullying is significantly associated with depression and personality, and personality has a remarkable mediating effect in campus bullying and depression.

Brief Report Prevalence of Bullying Among Autistic Adolescents in the United States: Impact of Disability Severity Status

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of bullying behaviors among autistic and non-autistic adolescents between the ages of 12-17 years in the U.S. and the extent to which the severity of such disability impacts bullying behaviors, based on the 2019-2020 National Survey of Children's Health.

METHODS

Parental reports of bullying perpetration and victimization were used to compare bullying behaviors among a weighted sample of 1011 autistic and 28,016 non-autistic adolescents.

RESULTS

Adjusting for participant sex, household income level, highest parent education, and race/ethnicity, autistic adolescents were significantly more likely to engage in bullying perpetration and experience bullying victimization than non-Autistic adolescents. Compared to non-autistic peers, autistic adolescents with moderate/severe autism were most likely to bully others (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.80, p < 0.05) and experience bullying victimization (aOR = 5.13, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSION

This study provides an update on the prevalence of bullying perpetration and victimization among autistic adolescents, however, the influence of factors such as socialization and mental health on bullying behaviors needs exploration.

Bullying in Adolescents Practising Sport: A Structural Model Approach

This article aims to analyse the relationship between the bullying aggressor and bullying victim profile related to practising or not practising sport in adolescents living in southern Spain. The research includes male and female participants aged between 12 and 16 years in different secondary schools in the provinces of Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla in the period between February 2022 and June 2022. The study aims to extend the existing scientific, theoretical and empirical knowledge on the influence of playing sport or not on disruptive bullying attitudes in adolescents. To this end, two initial hypotheses were designed; the first hypothesises that bullying victim behaviours are associated with future bullying aggressor behaviours when practising sport; and the second states that victim behaviours are associated with future bullying aggressor behaviours when not practising sport. To verify them, SPSS software was used for the preliminary analysis of the scale and sociodemographic profile. Additionally, the study is based on structural equation modelling methodology and variance-based methods employing SmartPLS v3.3 software. The results show the importance of sport or physical activity to reduce the chances of carrying out bullying actions on other peers and/or classmates. Therefore, it is considered necessary to prevent bullying in the classroom by implementing sports intervention programmes in educational centres.

Does Friend Support Matter? The Association between Gender Role Attitudes and School Bullying among Male Adolescents in China

This study investigated the association between gender role attitudes, perceived friend support, and school bullying among male adolescents from 11 schools in two cities in China. A total of 3172 Chinese adolescents between 12 and 20 years of age (48.80% girls and 51.20% boys) completed questionnaires that included measures of bullying, gender role attitudes, and perceived social support. In terms of outcome measures, the Chinese version of the Illinois Bully Scale (IBS), Attitudes toward Women Scale for Adolescents (AWSA), and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) were used to assess bullying perpetration, gender role attitudes, and perceived friend support, respectively. Based on masculinity theories and the stress-buffering theory, the study found that male adolescents held more traditional gender role attitudes (t = 30.78, p < 0.001) and reported higher prevalence of bullying behaviors (36.02%) than girls (31.20%). In addition, boys’ bullying behaviors were significantly predicted by gender role attitudes through perceived friend support. That is, male youth with more conservative gender role attitudes reported less perceived friend support (adjusted OR = 1.055; SE = 0.013), which elevated their risks of bullying perpetration (adjusted OR = 2.082; SE = 0.302). These findings have critical implications for bullying intervention and prevention through gender equity education.

Impact of Bullying-Victimization and Gender over Psychological Distress, Suicidal Ideation, and Family Functioning of Mexican Adolescents

Bullying victimization is strongly associated with increased psychological distress and suicide in adolescents and poor family functioning. Knowledge of gender differences influencing these factors will improve the prevention of mental problems and suicide in victimized adolescents. A total of 1685 Mexican secondary students, 12-17 years old (m = 13.65), of whom 54% were girls, responded to a standardized scale questionnaire to analyze such differences. Based on the statistical analysis, girls reported significantly lower family functioning and higher psychological distress and suicidal ideation than boys. The cluster analysis classified adolescents into high (5.78%), moderate (24.07%), and no-victimization (69.76%) groups. Boys predominated in the high (3.1%) and moderate-victimization (12.4%) clusters, and girls in the no-victimization group (39.51%). Multivariate statistical analyses found significant differences between the three groups, with the highest means of psychological distress and suicidal ideation and lowest family functioning in the high-victimization group. Only for suicidal ideation, there was an interaction between gender and the degree of victimization, with girls showing a higher increase of suicidal ideation than boys in the same cluster. Conclusions: Early detection and intervention in bullying-victimized adolescents, aiming to decrease psychological distress and suicidal ideation and strengthen family functioning, should consider contextual gender differences for effective prevention of mental health problems and suicide in adolescents.

Impact of work demand constraints on psychological distress through workplace bullying and personality traits: A moderated-mediation model

Introduction

This study addressed the human aspects of sustainable development in organizations by applying work demand resource theory and the main focus of the study is to investigate the negative aspects of workplace bullying on human's mental health. This study investigated how the work demand constraints play a role in increasing psychological distress among employees through the mediation of workplace bullying. This study also considers personality traits that play a role in preventing psychological distress resulting from workplace bullying.

Methods

The authors collected data by means of a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed among 1000 employees selected using a systematic sampling technique, patronized among three service sectors: the health sector, education sector, and forest department in the city of Lahore in Pakistan. The data was analyzed by employing Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) using Smart PLS 3.3.3.

Results

Results of this study reveal that work demand constraints (WDC) play a significant role in workplace bullying and impact increasing psychological distress. Personality traits play a moderating role between work demand constraints and workplace bullying behavior on the one hand and psychological distress on the other hand; however, openness to experiences was found to have a moderating relationship between work demand constraints and workplace bullying. Meanwhile, agreeableness and openness to experiences were found to have a moderating relationship between work demand constraints (WDC) and psychological distress.

Discussion

This study also has practical implications for employers, such as providing psychological counseling, personality development training at the workplace etc. The relationship of work demand constraints with psychological distress and workplace bullying through direct and indirect moderating effects of personality traits in Pakistan's service sector are unique contributions of this study.