Association of Early-Life Exposure to Income Inequality With Bullying in Adolescence in 40 Countries

Abstract

IMPORTANCE While the association between income inequality and interpersonal violence has been attributed to the psychosocial effects of inequality (eg, increased class anxiety, reduced social capital), longitudinal evidence for this pathway is limited by a reliance on small ecological studies and cross-sectional data. The developmental consequences of early-life inequality for subsequent involvement in violence have not been investigated. OBJECTIVE To examine the association between income inequality during infancy and early childhood and adolescents' involvement in bullying others, experiences of being bullied, or both. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS The Health Behavior in School-aged Children survey study was conducted in European and North American schools. This analysis used individual data on bullying (being bullied, bullying others, or both) from 6 consecutive school-based surveys of 11-year-old to 15-year-old students carried out in 40 countries between February 1994 to March 2014. Data analysis occurred from March 2018 to January 2019. EXPOSURE National Gini indices of income inequality for every year of life spanning a 35-year period (1979 to 2014). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Being bullied, bullying others, and both outcomes were measured using a common definition and questions adapted from the Bully-Victim Questionnaire and translated to many languages. RESULTS The sample included 425 938 male students and 448 265 female students from 162 country-survey year groups in 29 196 schools. Linear regression coefficients indicated that early-life income inequality from birth to 4 years was positively associated with being bullied (male students: linear regression coefficient, 18.26 [95% CI, 11.04-25.47]; P < .001; female students: linear regression coefficient, 15.67 [95% CI, 10.02-21.33]; P < .001), and dual involvement in being bullied and bullying others (male students: linear regression coefficient, 5.55 [95% CI, 2.67-8.44]; P < .001; female students: linear regression coefficient, 2.45 [95% CI, 0.93-3.97]; P < .001), after differences in lifetime mean income inequality (from birth to when bullying was measured), national per capita income, family socioeconomic position, age, and cohort were controlled. No such association was found with bullying others after differences in being bullied were controlled. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Being bullied is associated with early-life exposure to income inequality. Although further research on the underlying pathways is needed to guide intervention, these results suggest temporality in the association between inequality and violence and suggest that growing up in areas of high income inequality is associated with victimization in adolescence.

Bullying victimisation in adolescence: prevalence and inequalities by gender, socioeconomic status and academic performance across 71 countries

“…Alongside a focus on overall victimisation, existing cross-national victimisation research largely focuses on countries in Europe and North America [ 3 , 4 , [6] , [7] , [8] ]. This is particularly problematic as victimisation and its subtypes may have different levels of social acceptability and be rooted in different social norms in different countries.…”

“…Existing evidence has tended to focus on easily measured demographic inequalities in victimisation, for instance, age [ 6 , 7 , 9 ] and gender [ 6 , 9 , 10 ]. However, inequalities in victimisation are predicted by a range of factors, including sociodemographic factors such as socioeconomic position [ 8 , 11 , 12 ], and non-demographic factors such as academic performance [13] . Whether these factors are differentially associated with victimisation across different countries is uncertain.…”

Trends in Social Inequality in Exposure to Bullying at School 1994-2018

“…There is a social inequality in exposure to bullying in many countries, i.e. higher prevalence among adolescent from less affluent families [15][16] and a higher prevalence among adolescents exposed to high income inequality at school-and national level [15,17]. It is important to monitor bullying because it is so harmful and it is possible to intervene [18].…”

Inequality in People's Minds

“…Economic inequality is associated with a wide range of adverse outcomes at the individual, group, and societal levels. For example, areas with higher inequality tend to have higher levels of school bullying, worse mental and physical health, and lower perceived social mobility (Elgar et al, 2019;Pickett & Wilkinson, 2015; see also Buttrick & Oishi, 2017). Thus, one may expect people to increasingly rebel against rising levels of economic inequality (Meltzer & Richard, 1981).…”