Relations among chronic bullying victimization, subjective well-being and resilience in university students: a preliminary study

Abstract

Bullying is a frequently occurring problem behavior among youths. Some youth are persistently victimized across different school contexts. However, the impact of bullying experiences before and in university on well-being is relatively underexplored. Students who experienced victimization at both time points (before and at university) were classified as chronic victims. This study aimed to explore the prevalence of chronic bullying victimization of university students and examined the relations among chronic bullying victimization, resilience and subjective well-being. This is a cross-sectional study comprising a total of 1122 university students (78% female), aged between 18 and 25 years, in an autonomous community in central Spain. Participants completed a structured survey to assess bullying victimization experiences in university and previous bullying victimization (in Primary and Secondary Schools) experiences. Additionally, participants self-reported subjective well-being and resilience. A considerable proportion of participants (19.2%) reported being chronic bullying victims. The results showed that the chronic bullying victimization group reported the worst emotional well-being. The regression analyses revealed that resilience moderate the association between chronic bullying victimization and emotional well-being. This study provides evidence for significantly deteriorated well-being of university students involved in chronic victimization and the need to deal with bullying from the health network along with education institutions.