Abstract
This study addressed school-contextual features of social disorder in relation to sixth-grade students’ experiences of bullying victimization and mental health complaints. It investigated, firstly, whether the school’s concentrations of behavioural problems were associated with individual students’ likelihood of being bullied, and secondly, whether the school’s concentrations of behavioural problems and bullying victimization predicted students’ emotional and psychosomatic health complaints. The data were derived from the Swedish National Survey of Mental Health among Children and Young People, carried out among sixth-grade students (approximately 12–13 years old) in Sweden in 2009. The analyses were based on information from 59,510 students distributed across 1999 schools. The statistical method used was multilevel modelling. While students’ own behavioural problems were associated with an elevated risk of being bullied, attending a school with a higher concentration of students with behavioural problems also increased the likelihood of being bullied. Attending a school with higher levels of bullying victimization and behavioural problems predicted more emotional and psychosomatic complaints, even when adjusting for their individual level analogues. The findings indicate that school-level features of social disorder influence bullying victimization and mental health complaints among students.
Highlights
Mental health problems often begin to surface during adolescence and the school environment can play an important role in supporting young people’s well-being
The current study focused on behavioural problems and bullying victimization, as well as two types of mental health complaints: emotional and psychosomatic complaints
This study applied social disorganization theory to the school context by focusing on behaviour problems in relation to sixth-grade students’ experiences of bullying victimization and mental health complaints. It demonstrated that a school context characterized by social disorder is associated with an increased risk of bullying victimization and with more mental health complaints, irrespective of the students’ own behavioural problems and experiences of bullying victimization as well as school sociodemographic factors
Summary
Mental health problems often begin to surface during adolescence and the school environment can play an important role in supporting young people’s well-being. Peer relations and the behaviour of others are stressors that many young people may face difficulties with at some stage. Some youth experience additional stressors related to the broader social environment at school that can negatively influence their mental health. The current study investigates the role of behavioural problems in terms of conduct disorder and hyperactivity and bullying victimization as school contextual stressors and how these relate to adolescents’ emotional and psychosomatic health complaints. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 156; doi:10.3390/ijerph15010156 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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