Victimization by Peers and Subjective Well-being of Romanian School Children

Abstract

Child victimisation is a critical global problem with negative implications for children’s well-being. The negative consequences of bullying threaten both the emotional and social well-being and the academic performance of students. In Romania, there is currently less research on the study of victimisation at young ages. Results from a previous study show that Romanian 10- & 12-year-old children are the first at relational victimization and the first at physical victimization among those from the 15 participant countries (Rees, G., & Main, G., Children’s views on their lives and well-being in 15 countries: A report on the Children’s Worlds survey, 2013–14. York, UK. Children’s Worlds Project (ISCWeB), <publisher-loc>, 2015). The present study therefore proposes to contribute to a better understanding of this issue. To this regard, we used the results of a survey conducted in 2019 in Romania based on the methodology of the third wave of the Children’s Worlds survey (n = 3296 children of 8-, 10- & 12-year-old). Together with physical and relational victimization, this study also includes a measure of verbal victimization. Results show that victimization in school is linked with demographic and family economic background variables: boys are more victimized than girls, younger kids more than the older ones, children in schools in rural areas more than those from urban areas, and poor children more than the rich ones. Our findings also indicate a strong positive correlation between the forms of victimisation (physical, verbal and relational). Children who are exposed to victimisation also have lower levels of satisfaction with their lives, when controlling for gender, age, urban/rural school and material deprivation.