Is being a victim of bullying or cyberbullying in secondary school associated with subsequent risk‐taking behavior in adolescence? A longitudinal study in secondary schools

Abstract

Introduction Neurobiological and social changes in adolescence can make victims of bullying more susceptible to subsequent impulsive behavior. With the high prevalence of bullying in schools and rise in cyberbullying in the United Kingdom, it is important that the health impacts of bullying victimization, including on risk‐taking, are understood. Our study aims to investigate whether bullying/cyberbullying victimization is associated with subsequent health risk‐taking behavior in adolescence. Risk‐taking behavior includes electronic cigarette and cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, illicit drug use, early sexual debut, weapon carrying, damaging property, and setting fire. Methods A secondary quantitative analysis of data from 3337, English, secondary school students in the control arm of the INCLUSIVE trial, constituting an observational cohort. Bullying victimization was measured at baseline (age 11/12 years) using the gatehouse bullying scale and a separate question on cyberbullying victimization. Logistic regression was used to test for an association between bullying/cyberbullying victimization at baseline and risk‐taking behavior at 36 months, adjusting for baseline risk‐taking behavior and other potential confounders, and accounting for school clustering. Results There was strong evidence (p ≤ .02) for a positive dose‐responsive association between being bullied at baseline and nearly all risk‐taking behavior at follow‐up. Although there was no evidence for an association between being bullied at baseline and weapon carrying (p = .102), there was evidence for a positive association between being cyberbullied at baseline and weapon carrying (p = .036). Conclusions It is plausible that bullying/cyberbullying victimization increases the likelihood of subsequent risk‐taking behavior in adolescence. Policy options should focus on implementing evidence‐based antibullying school interventions.

Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected Cyberbullying and Cybervictimization Prevalence among Children and Adolescents? A Systematic Review

“…Twenty-six articles were excluded due to not meeting the inclusion criteria: two studies focused on wrong outcomes [64,65], ten were conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic [66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75], seven articles involved participants aged > 18 years [51,[76][77][78][79][80][81], two articles included participants aged > 18 years and examined the phenomenon before the COVID-19 pandemic [82,83], three did not report the period of data collection nor made any reference to the COVID-19 pandemic [84][85][86], and two studies were no empirical investigations, being a scoping review [87] and a systematic review [88] (Supplementary material, Table S2).…”

Discovering the impact of bullying on adolescents through bibliometric analysis

“…The effect felt by victims is that they feel that their self-confidence has been taken away. 52 Meanwhile, for the perpetrators of bullying, the effect will become a habit and enjoyment to increase their ego. The fear or trauma experienced by victims of bullying at school will trigger them to drop out of school, children who are victims of bullying at school will usually show changes in habits such as children often feeling afraid to go back to school, often experiencing nightmares, decreased appetite and changes in behaviour such as prefer to be alone, daydream, don't talk much and don't have self-confidence.…”