Effects of Bullying Forms on Adolescent Mental Health and Protective Factors: A Global Cross-Regional Research Based on 65 Countries

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Abstract

Adolescent bullying is a public health issue of great global concern. Given the serious negative effect of bullying on adolescent mental health, it is critical to seek protective factors to protect adolescent mental health. From a global cross-regional perspective, the study aims to explore the relationship between forms of bullying and adolescent mental health and the role of parental support as a protective factor. Data were drawn from adolescents aged 12–17 years in 65 countries from the Global School-based Student Health Survey between 2003 and 2015. After controlling the state-fixed effects, individual adolescent behavior, and family factors, the ordinary least squares model was used to analyze the influence of bullying frequency and forms of bullying on adolescent mental health. The results found that the prevalence of bullying in the sample of 167,286 adolescents was 32.03%, with the highest prevalence of bullying in the sample countries in Africa. Verbal bullying had the highest prevalence and the most significant negative effect on adolescent mental health. The study also discussed the differences in bullying among adolescents by gender, age, and region. “Parental supervision”, “parental connectedness” and “parental bonding” played a positive and protective role in the mental health of adolescents who experienced bullying.

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School bullying among adolescents in the United States: physical, verbal, relational, and cyber.

Jing WANG, Ronald Iannotti, Tonja R Nansel (2009)

Four forms of school bullying behaviors among US adolescents and their association with sociodemographic characteristics, parental support, and friends were examined. Data were obtained from the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) 2005 Survey, a nationally representative sample of grades 6-10 (N = 7,182). The revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire was used to measure physical, verbal, and relational forms of bullying. Two items were added using the same format to measure cyber bullying. For each form, four categories were created: bully, victim, bully-victim, and not involved. Multinomial logistic regressions were applied, with sociodemographic variables, parental support, and number of friends as predictors. Prevalence rates of having bullied others or having been bullied at school for at least once in the last 2 months were 20.8% physically, 53.6% verbally, 51.4% socially, or 13.6% electronically. Boys were more involved in physical or verbal bullying, whereas girls were more involved in relational bullying. Boys were more likely to be cyber bullies, whereas girls were more likely to be cyber victims. African-American adolescents were involved in more bullying (physical, verbal, or cyber) but less victimization (verbal or relational). Higher parental support was associated with less involvement across all forms and classifications of bullying. Having more friends was associated with more bullying and less victimization for physical, verbal, and relational forms but was not associated with cyber bullying. Parental support may protect adolescents from all four forms of bullying. Friends associate differentially with traditional and cyber bullying. Results indicate that cyber bullying is a distinct nature from that of traditional bullying.