A Study On The Prevalence And Related Factors Of Bullying Behavior Among Middle School Students

Background:School bullying has been identified as a serious global public health problem.UNICEF reports that one in three students aged 13 to 15 in 122 countries has been involved in bullying.School bullying has also occurred frequently in China in recent years.Previous studies have shown that the reported rate of bullying victimization among Chinese students is between 2% and 66%,and the reported rate of bullying behavior is between 2% and 68%.School bullying can cause serious psychological and physical harm to victims,perpetrators and even bystanders,such as low self-esteem,anxiety and depression symptoms,and even cause self-injury and suicide behaviors in serious cases.According to the “2019 National Statistical Bulletin on Education Development”,there are 282 million students in schools across the country.These students may be at risk of bullying others or being bullied.The research on school bullying in China started relatively late compared with Western countries,and most of the research focused on bullying victimization,and did not distinguish the types of bullying when exploring the influencing factors of bullying.However,existing studies have found that the influencing factors of different types of bullying may be different.Objectives:1.To understand the prevalence of different types of bullying(including physical,relational,verbal,property and sexual bullying)and multiple forms of bullying among middle school students.2.To preliminarily explore the role of individual characteristics and social environment characteristics on school bullying behavior.3.To explore the risk factors of different types of bullying and multiple bullying behaviors of middle school students,so as to provide theoretical basis for effectively reducing and preventing the occurrence of school bullying.Methods:1.Cross-sectional study: stratified cluster random sampling was used to select all students from 7 middle schools in a city of Jiangsu province for investigation.The survey content included the general information of the respondents(gender,grade,etc.),individual characteristics(smoking,drinking,emotional control,etc.),family situation(parents’ educational level and occupation,parenting style,etc.),school-related information(relationship with classmates,etc.),and the experience of bullying behavior of the respondents.Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact probability method were used to analyze the distribution of different types of bullying and multiple bullying in different sociodemographic characteristics.2.Based on social ecosystem theory,structural equation model was used to explore the effects of individual characteristics,family interaction,parental characteristics,peer relationship and school environment on physical bullying and relational bullying.3.Analysis of the influencing factors of different types of bullying: Five separate casecontrol studies were established.Middle school students who perpetrated only physical bullying,only relational bullying,only verbal bullying,only property bullying and only sexual bullying were include in five separate case groups.Each case was matched with middle school students who had not been involved in any bullying according to gender,school and grade.Based on the conditional Logistic regression model,the influencing factors of different types of bullying behavior were analyzed.4.Analysis of the influencing factors of multiple bullying: Three case-control studies were established.Middle school students who perpetrated two types of bullying,three types of bullying,and four or more types of bullying were included in three different case groups.Middle school students who had not been involved in any bullying were included in control groups.Case groups were matched with control groups by gender,school and grade.Conditional logistic regression model was used to analyze.Results:1.The reported rate of bullying behavior by middle school students was 13.84%.The reported rate of only perpetrating physical bullying was 1.11%,only perpetrating relational bullying was 2.43%,only perpetrating verbal bullying was 3.84%,only perpetrating property bullying was 0.28%,and only perpetrating sexual bullying was 0.60%.Boys reported higher rates of physical,verbal and sexual bullying,while girls reported higher rates of relational bullying.Senior high school students reported higher rates of relational,verbal and sexual bullying than junior high school students.2.The reported rates of two,three,four or more types of bullying were 3.44%,1.56% and0.57%,respectively.Boys reported higher rates of two,three,four or more types of bullying than girls.3.Structural equation model results indicated that individual deviant behavior and negative peer relationships and the school environment have a direct impact on both physical and relational bullying.Negative family interaction may indirectly influence physical and relational bullying through individual deviant behavior,negative peer relationships and school environment.Individual deviant behavior has the greatest impact on physical and relational bullying.4.The risk factors of physical bullying among middle school students are drinking,poor academic performance,parents not being the main caregivers,and poor relationships with classmates.The risk factors of relational bullying were drinking,poor academic performance,having romantic relationships,parents working in other cities,punitive and persuasive parenting style,poor relationships with classmates,distrusting people.The risk factors of verbal bullying were drinking,playing battle video games,having romantic relationships,a mainly punitive parenting style and both punitive and persuasive parenting style,boarding at school and poor relationships with classmates.The risk factors of property bullying are drinking and not being class leaders.Risk factors for sexual bullying were drinking,fewer close friends,and surfing the internet for more than two hours a day.5.The influence factors of multiple bullying and single bullying are overlapping and different.Additional statistically significant risk factors for multiple bullying behaviors compared to a single type of bullying included inability to control emotions,frequent use of social software,poor relations between family members,and liberal parenting styles.Conclusions:1.The incidence of bullying behavior among middle school students is 13.84%.2.The influencing factors of different types of bullying are different.Targeted interventions and preventive measures aimed at the risk factors of different types of bullying may be effective in preventing bullying.3.The influencing factors of bullying behavior among middle school students involve individual,family and school level,including drinking,not being class leaders,poor academic performance,playing battle video games,having romantic relationships,fewer close friends,surfing the internet for more than two hours a day,inability to control emotions,frequent use of social software,parents not being the main caregivers,parents working in other cities,a mainly punitive parenting style and both punitive and persuasive parenting style,liberal parenting styles,poor relations between family members,boarding at school,poor relationships with classmates and distrusting people.It is necessary to strengthen the implementation of relevant policies and regulations,strengthen the cooperation of families,schools and relevant government departments,establish a multi-level prevention and control system of bullying,and reduce the occurrence of bullying.