Abstract
BackgroundThe significant psychosocial harms from bullying among adolescents create major challenges for mental health promotion programs and services in schools. While the negative consequences of bullying victimisation are well known, to date there is scarce empirical analysis of inverse associations, in which mental health problems make children more vulnerable to bullying victimisation and perpetration. Based on a short-term longitudinal study among adolescents in Vietnam, this study examined reciprocal associations between children’s depressive symptoms, psychological distress, suicidal ideation and bullying victimisation experiences (i.e., victims or bully-victims).MethodsSecondary and high school students (n = 1167; age range: 11–16 years old; 55% female) in urban areas in northern Vietnam completed two self-administered questionnaires, 6-months apart in the academic year 2014–2015. Measures estimated bullying victimisation and perpetration in the past 6 months, depressive symptoms, psychological distress, and suicidal ideation. A cross-lagged analysis was performed to test the reciprocal associations.ResultsAbout one-third of students in the sample were involved as victims, bullies or bully-victims at both times, with more males than females reporting these experiences. Females reported a higher level of depressive symptoms than males at Time 1 but not at Time 2. After adjusting for outcome variables and other covariates measured at Time 1, nine of 12 cross-lagged associations across three models were statistically significant, with different patterns for females and males. There were reciprocal associations between bullying victimisation and mental health problems. Bullying victimisation was shown as an independent predictor of subsequent mental health problems; in turn, mental health problems preceded students’ experience of becoming victims or bully-victims. Females with mental health problems were more likely to be victims; whereas similarly distressed males were vulnerable to both being bullied and being perpetrators.ConclusionThis study is the first of its kind in Vietnam and in the Southeast Asian region to examine reciprocal associations between bullying victimisation and mental health problems among adolescents. Anti-bullying intervention and prevention programs and school-based mental health promotion programs should be integrated and be sensitive to gender differences in order to maximise their impact.
Highlights
The significant psychosocial harms from bullying among adolescents create major challenges for mental health promotion programs and services in schools
Based on a short-term longitudinal study among adolescents aged 11- to 16-years in Vietnam, this study aimed to provide empirical evidence linking depression, psychological distress, and suicidal ideation to subsequent bullying victimisation, and to examine whether the reciprocal association differs between males and females
It is noted that our study focused only on students who reported as victims only or bully-victims in comparison with those who reported not being involved in any form of bullying
Summary
The significant psychosocial harms from bullying among adolescents create major challenges for mental health promotion programs and services in schools. While the negative consequences of bullying victimisation are well known, to date there is scarce empirical analysis of inverse associations, in which mental health problems make children more vulnerable to bullying victimisation and perpetration. While the negative consequences of bullying victimisation are well known, to date few longitudinal studies have investigated an inverse association, in which mental health problems make individuals more vulnerable to becoming victims, bullies, or both [16,17,18,19,20]. A 3-year longitudinal study in Australia among 1504 adolescents aged 13-years at baseline found students who had social and emotional difficulties were more likely to be victims of both cyberbullying and traditionally bullying [18]. Not all studies agree with one study finding that psychopathologic behaviour is a consequence rather than a cause of a bullying victimisation experience [19] Other studies have found no gender differences in such associations [20], while some have revealed a variation between males and females in this regard [16, 23]
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