Bullying Victimization, Binge Drinking, and Marijuana Use among Adolescents: Results from the 2013 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey

Abstract

The current research examines the association between bullying victimization, binge drinking, and marijuana use among adolescents. We seek to determine if this association varies based on the type of bullying experienced, traditional or cyberbullying. We used data from the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a nationally representative sample of high school students in the United States. The dependent variables were binge drinking and marijuana use. Our key independent variable, bullying victimization, included both traditional and cyberbullying. We estimated logistic regression models, by gender, to examine the association between bullying victimization and substance use. About 25% of the sample reported bullying victimization, including 10.39% for only traditional, 5.47% for only cyber, and 9.26% for both. Traditional bullying was not significantly associated with binge drinking, but was negatively related to marijuana use. Being the victim of cyberbullying and both types of bullying was significantly associated with binge drinking and marijuana use. We also found important gender differences. The current research adds to a growing list of studies that suggests that cyberbullying is associated with more adverse outcomes than traditional bullying. Bullying prevention and intervention efforts should focus on reducing cyberbullying and providing adolescents with the skills needed to effectively deal with cyberbullying.

Gender, Bullying Victimization, Depressive Symptoms, and Suicidality

“…Answers include (a) 0, (b) <1 hr/day, (c) 1 hr/day, (d) 2 hr/day, (e) 3 hr/day, (f) 4 hr/day, and (g) ≥5 hr/day. Spending more time online could expose someone to more cyberbullying (Priesman et al, 2017).…”

“…The current study utilizes the 2017 YRBSS and includes data from 14,416 respondents (7,424 girls and 6,992 boys). The reliability (Brener et al, 2002;Kolbe et al, 1993) and validity (Gast et al, 1995;Kolbe et al, 1993;Priesman et al, 2017) of the YRBSS have been established by prior research.…”

“…Similarly, cyberbullying victimization has been found to relate to various negative outcomes. These negative outcomes range from negative impacts on physical health (Sourander et al, 2010), and mental health (Elgar et al, 2014;Kowalski et al, 2012), to increased engagement in risky behaviors such as binge drinking and marijuana use (Priesman et al, 2017) and increased risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts (Elgar et al, 2014;Litwiller & Brausch, 2013).…”

“…Although there has been a significant amount of literature that examines the impact that traditional bullying and cyberbullying have on adolescents, these types of victimization have typically been examined separately. Although some literature has examined the influence of experiencing both types of bullying, it has been limited and typically deals with delinquent behavioral issues (Priesman et al, 2017), examines the types of bullying separately (Reed et al, 2015), the offenders rather than victims (Mehari & Farrell, 2018), or has been limited by relying on small convenience samples (Hay & Meldrum, 2010;Mehari & Farrell, 2018). The purpose of this study is to expand on the existing literature on bullying victimization by examining how traditional bullying, cyberbullying, and the combination of traditional and cyberbullying correlate with depression and suicidality in a large, nationally representative sample of adolescents, and whether these relationships are gendered.…”

Comportamentos de risco, uso de substâncias psicoativas, bullying e problemas relacionados em adolescentes escolares

“…Apesar de as consequências para as vítimas de bullying serem indicadas nos estudos (COPELAND et al, 2013;HOLT et al, 2017;SWEARER;HYMEL, 2015), em poucos ainda investiga-se o papel do agressor; porém, esses também sofrem as consequências do fenômeno e contribuem para sua manutenção entre os escolares (MELLO et al, 2017). Em estudos brasileiros mostrou-se que escolares identificados como agressores têm maior probabilidade de envolverem-se em comportamentos que causam riscos à saúde (MALTA et al, 2011(MALTA et al, , 2014a KRETSCHMER et al, 2017PRIESMAN;NEWMAN;FORD, 2017) e por estarem presentes rotineiramente no ambiente escolar, afetando o desempenho escolar dos envolvidos e dos demais adolescentes (MERIANOS et al, 2017;ZEQUINÃO et al, 2017).…”