An Association Between Bullying Behaviors and Alcohol Use Among Middle School Students

Abstract

Although a high prevalence of bullying behaviors among adolescents has been documented, little is known about the association between bullying behaviors and alcohol use among perpetrators or victims. This study used data from a representative two-stage cluster random sample of 44, 532 middle school adolescents in Florida. We found a high prevalence of bullying behaviors (30% physical, 52% verbal, 12% cyber). A higher proportion of students (21%) who were involved in any type of bullying behavior used alcohol than students who were not involved (13%). Students involved in bullying behaviors as perpetrators or victims were significantly more likely to have used alcohol in the past-30-days than students who were not involved in bullying. Results suggest that bullying behaviors may be associated with alcohol use and that early evaluation of bullying behavior may be important as part of alcohol-use prevention programs among young adolescents.

Cyberbullying, Depression, and Problem Alcohol Use in Female College Students: A Multisite Study

“…This is consistent with previous studies that have shown that bullies are at risk for negative outcomes with regard to alcohol use, 52 but is in contrast to previous studies that have shown an association between cybervictimization and alcohol use. 53 One contributor to this discrepancy may be the inclusion of only female participants.…”

A prática de bullying entre escolares brasileiros e fatores associados, Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde do Escolar 2015

“…In general, studies show that anti-social behavior and the use of alcohol and other drugs are associated with bullying 22,23 . Furthermore, the aggressors may have emotional issues, difficulty relating to colleagues and problems adapting to the school environment 18 .…”

Patterns and Correlates for Bullying among Young Adolescents in Ghana

“…Among the other correlates of bullying victimization reported in the literature are socioeconomic status [34][35][36][37], sexual intercourse [33,38], substance use (i.e., alcohol use, alcohol misuse, drug use) [5,[39][40][41] and physical fighting [16,40,42,43].…”