Abstract
Bullying victimization in school students is a serious public health concern and has been linked to a wide range of mental health problems. The current study aims to examine patterns of involvement in different types of bullying victimization among Chinese adolescents and evaluate the associations between bullying victimization and mental health problems. Cross-sectional data from 20,722 middle school students from Guangdong Province were sampled using a multistage, stratified cluster-randomized sampling method. Latent class analysis (LCA) was performed on seven items representing bullying victimization. Levels of mental health outcomes were compared across each latent class. Four latent classes were identified for boys: the high victimization class (0.6%), the moderate victimization class (2.8%), the verbal victimization class (12.4%), and the low victimization class (84.2%). For girls, three latent classes were identified: the high victimization class (0.7%), the moderate victimization class (5.6%), and the low victimization class (93.7%). Characteristics of the item probabilities were different between boys and girls. For both genders, a graded relationship was found between bullying victimization class membership and mental health outcomes. These findings underline the complexity of bullying victimization patterns among Chinese adolescents. Students with higher involvement in bullying victimization have more severe mental health problems.
Highlights
Bullying victimization constitutes a serious public health concern in school students around the world
We found that distinct patterns of victimization existed between boys and girls, with different numbers and characteristics of latent classes by gender in the Latent class analysis (LCA) models
Class differences were found in terms of students’ anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. This result demonstrated the association of bullying victimization with mental health problems
Summary
Bullying victimization constitutes a serious public health concern in school students around the world. It was reported that approximately 32% of students across 38 countries had experienced being bullied [3]. In China, the issue seems to be prevalent, as approximately half of students have reported lifetime bullying victimization [4,5]. Several types of bullying behaviors have been identified, such as physical, verbal, relational, and cyber behaviors. Traditional types of bullying include physical (hitting, kicking, pushing, etc.), verbal (name-calling, taunting, etc.), and relational (spreading rumors, excluding, etc.) bullying [6]. Physical and verbal aggression are direct forms of bullying that involve face-to-face confrontation, whereas relational aggression is regarded as indirect bullying [7]. Cyber bullying refers to an emerging form of bullying through the application of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices [8]
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