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Rationale: Substantial evidence indicates that involvement in school bullying has been linked to lower quality of life (QoL). Yet there is little information elucidating the link between bullying involvement and QoL in different cultures., Objective: This study investigated the associations between different types of bullying involvement and QoL among adolescents. The moderating roles of cultural values in the relationship between bullying involvement and QoL were examined., Methods: This study included representative samples from 35 countries (N = 184,017) using data from the 2017/2018 Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey and the new 2023 World Cultural Map Scores from the World Values Survey Wave 7 (2017/2021). Multilevel mixed-effects analysis was employed to examine individual-level and country-level effects simultaneously., Results: All types of bullying involvement were associated with lower QoL, with being a victim having the lowest QoL. Adolescents in societies that prioritize higher self-expression values exhibited a reduced propensity to engage in school bullying. In countries with higher self-expression values, there was a more pronounced negative association between bullying involvement and QoL. Traditional/Secular-rational values had no significant and consistent moderating effect on the association between bullying involvement and QoL. Those results were quite similar for both traditional bullying and cyberbullying., Conclusion: These findings imply that cultural values are closely intertwined with adolescent bullying and quality of life. Therefore, prevention and intervention programs should pay more attention to addressing bullying and promoting the QoL of adolescents according to various cultural values., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

School bullying is a widespread public health issue that negatively impacts the mental health of children and adolescents. This study aimed to investigate associations between school bullying involvement and anxiety of children and adolescents. A survey covering all types of pre-college schools (primary, middle, high, and vocational school) was conducted in an ethnic autonomous county in China. 1,943 students participated in this study. Being a victim of verbal (OR=3.08, 95%CI = [2.43,3.91]), physical (OR=3.24, 95%CI = [2.46,4.27]), relational (OR=3.72, 95%CI = [2.90,4.76]), or cyberbullying (OR=3.47, 95%CI = [2.61,4.61]) were associated with increased symptoms of generalized anxiety. Similarly, being a perpetrator of verbal (OR=2.12, 95%CI = [1.45,3.10]), physical (OR=1.85, 95%CI = [1.22,2.79]), relational (OR=1.78, 95%CI = [1.15,2.74]), or cyber-bullying (OR=1.59, 95%CI = [1.08,2.33]) were related to a higher degree of anxiety. Moreover, in both victims and perpetrators higher levels of anxiety were associated with a greater number of types of bullying they were involved in, suggesting a dose-response relation between school bullying involvement and anxiety. Therefore, both bullying victims and perpetrators need mental health support and anti-bullying strategies should address different forms of bullying evenhandedly., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Cyberbullying and its consequences is a little-investigated public health issue. We investigated the correlations between cyberbullying involvement, either being a victim or being a preparator, and psychological distress among a group of Chinese adolescents. A representative sample of 4978 students from Jiangsu province covering all types of pre-college schools was surveyed using a stratified sampling method. Both being a victim and being a perpetrator correlated with higher degrees of psychological distress, and the former's effect is stronger. Family cohesion and school cohesion are protective factors of psychological distress, but only family cohesion plays a moderating effect between cyberbullying involvement and distress. Moreover, the positive correlations between cyberbullying involvement and psychological distress become non-significant when the interactions are included in regression models. Last but not least, female students and students in a higher grade or students with worse academic performance have higher degrees of distress. Our study reveals that, instead of school cohesion, family cohesion is more important to mitigate the psychological impact of cyberbullying involvement and eventually heal the trauma.

Background and Objectives: School bullying threatens the health of children and adolescents, such as mental health disorders, social deviant behaviors, suicidal behaviors, and coping difficulties. The present study aims to address (1) prevalence rates of both traditional and cyber school bullying perpetration, and (2) the associations between self-control, parental involvement, experiencing conflicts with parents, experiencing interparental conflict, and risk behaviors, and school bullying perpetration among Chinese children and adolescents. Method: This study used data from a national representative school bullying survey (n = 3,675) among children and adolescents from all grades (primary school 4th grade to high school 12th grade) in seven cities in China. Negative binomial regression was used to estimate the effects of these predictive factors on traditional and cyber school bullying perpetration, respectively. Seven control variables were included, such as gender, boarding school, family socioeconomic status, and parents' education levels. Results: The sample comprised 52% female, 18% at boarding school, 70% of the participants' academic performance was average or above. Approximately 17.3% of the participants reported participating in traditional school bullying against their peers, and 7.8% perpetrated cyberbullying behaviors. Also, after controlling sociodemographic characteristics and high self-control, parental involvement reduced the likelihood of traditional and cyberbullying perpetrating. Experiencing interparental conflict and risk behavior was significantly associated with increased perpetration of traditional and cyber school bullying. We found that having a conflict with parents was significantly associated with cyberbullying perpetration. Implications: Findings have implications for practice. Anti-bullying intervention programs targeting this population should consider these factors. For example, school administrators may develop school programs involving parents in the efforts and interventions workshops improving children and adolescents' levels of self-control. Limitations are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyberbullying involvement can lead to internal health issues, especially mental health problems. Different coping strategies may reduce or enhance the strengths between cyberbullying experience and mental health problems. In this study, we examined the correlations between cyberbullying involvement and loneliness among a group of children and adolescents during the Covid-19 pandemic in China, focusing on investigating the protecting effect of the resilient coping strategy. The results demonstrated that 86.68% of the students were not involved in cyberbullying activities, 8.19% were victims only, 1.89% was perpetrators only, and 3.24% were both victims and perpetrators. Compared with the non-involved, the victims-only group had a significantly higher degree of reported loneliness and a lower score of resilient coping, while the differences of the other groups were not significant. Resilient coping strategy can significantly reduce loneliness and play a mediating role between cyberbullying victimization and loneliness, but such mitigating effect was relatively weak. Besides, peer relations were the primary protective factors, and age was the primary risk factor of loneliness among the controlled variables. This study can enrich current knowledge of cyberbullying involvement and the psychological health among children and adolescents, especially in the context of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Most participants considered cyberbullying is unacceptable. • Moral disengagement is positively associated with higher cyberbullying perpetration. • Empathy plays a moderating role between moral disengagement and cyberbullying. The correlation between adolescent moral disengagement and cyberbullying perpetration remains unclear to date. Using a representative sample of 4969 adolescents surveyed in Jiangsu Province, China, we investigated the association between moral disengagement and cyberbullying perpetration, focusing on the mitigating effect of empathy. Our findings indicated that the majority of participants held high ethical standards and considered cyberbullying unacceptable. However, perpetrators often use moral disengagement as a way to justify their actions, leading to a correlation between moral disengagement and increased cyberbullying perpetration. Empathy was found to be a protective factor against cyberbullying. The correlation between moral disengagement and cyberbullying was reduced when empathy was taken into consideration in the analysis. Additionally, cyberbullying perpetration was more prevalent among boys than girls. These results suggest that efforts to reduce moral disengagement, especially among those with lower empathy, need to be conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers play an essential role in school bullying prevention. This study investigates teachers' perceived seriousness and willingness to intervene in school bullying using a survey-experimental design. Twenty conjoint scenarios were designed based on five types of victims' reactions (crying, fighting back, seeking help, pretending nothing happened, no description) and four forms of bullying (physical, verbal, relational, and cyber). Cyberbullying is perceived as the most serious. Physical bullying elicits the highest willingness to intervene. Teachers' perceived seriousness significantly varies according to victims' reactions, except for relational bullying. However, teachers' willingness to intervene does not differ significantly based on victims' reactions. • Bullying types are more likely to affect teachers' perceived seriousness and intervention willingness than victims' reactions. • Cyberbullying ranks the highest, following physical, verbal, and relational bullying for teachers' perceived severity. • Regarding intervention willingness, physical bullying attracts the highest attention, while cyberbullying is the second. • A teacher's empathy can be increased by a victim's "crying" reaction and then increases their willingness to intervene. • The victim's "fighting back" reaction can increase a teacher's willingness to intervene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the ethnic differences of being traditionally bullied and cyberbullied in China. Two datasets are used. One is a national survey including 3675 participants from seven cities (Study-N) while the other covers 2155 students in one minority autonomous county in northwest China (Study-L). All types of pre-college schools are included in both surveys, but students from grade one to grade three in primary schools are excluded. Overall, being an ethnic minority is less likely to be traditionally bullied in the national survey, though this effect becomes insignificant when the control variables are included. In the ethnic diversity area (Study-L), the dominant majority in this county who are a national minority (Yugur) has a significantly lower probability of being traditional bullied than the national majority (Han), while the differences between Han and Tibetans and other minorities are insignificant. No significant differences regarding being cyberbullied are founded between the minorities and the majority in both studies. Besides, being a boy is a risk factor, while better academic performance and social relations are protective factors. Elementary schools have the highest prevalence of school bullying. This paper indicates that ethnicity plays little effect on school bullying involvement in China. • The ethnic differences in being traditionally bullied and being cyberbullied are examined. • Both the situation in cities across China and the situation in an ethnic diversity area are investigated. • There is no significant difference in being traditionally bullied in cities. • The dominated minority group (Yugur) in the ethnic diversity area have a lower probability of being traditional bullied than Han. • No significant difference regarding being cyberbullied is found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study compared the differences of school bullying definitions between teachers, students, and parents in China. • Compared to verbal, physical, and cyberbullying, relational bullying was less likely to be regarded as school bullying. • Students, parents, and teachers do not use the three characteristics defined by Olweus as criteria for defining bullying. • Adults' (parents' and teachers') criteria for defining school bullying were different from students' definition. This study aims to determine whether the four types of bullying (verbal, physical, relational, and cyberbullying) are equally likely to be regarded as school bullying by students, parents, and teachers, and whether all three characteristics of bullying (repetitiveness, intentionality, and power imbalance) are part of the definition of school bullying in China. Students (N = 1,943), parents (N = 1,957), and teachers (N = 409) in pre-college schools in China participated in survey experiments. Multi-level models and ordinary linear models were used to perform data analysis. Results indicated that compared with verbal, physical, and cyberbullying, relational bullying was less likely to be considered as school bullying. Neither students and parents, nor teachers used all three characteristics as criteria for identifying school bullying, although parents and teachers considered more characteristics than students when defining school bullying. Therefore, the three characteristics of bullying may not be the gold standard for defining school bullying. Practical investigation should give more attention to relational bullying, and parents and teachers should view school bullying through the students' broader lens when responding to bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the unique patterns of school bullying involvement among adolescents is critical to developing efficient interventions for reducing school violence. The present study identifies latent classes of school bullying victimization and perpetration, focusing on traditional and cyberbullying among student peer networks. Data came from a national school bullying survey (N = 3,675) among students from 4th grade (primary school) to 12th grade (high school) across seven provinces in Mainland China. Latent class models identified latent subgroups of students by gender (1,903 females and 1,772 males) using four binary indicators: traditional bullying victimization, cyberbullying victimization, traditional bullying perpetration, and cyberbullying perpetration. We found four distinct latent classes for both genders, respectively. Three classes emerged in both male and female students (1) traditional and cyberbullying perpetrator-victims, (2) traditional bullying victims, and (3) minimal involvement. Although a bullying perpetrator class was identified in both male and female groups, male students in this class had a high probability of engaging in both traditional and cyberbullying behaviors against their school peers, whereas the bullying perpetrator class emerged in the female group was mainly involved only in traditional bullying. The findings revealed gender similarities and differences in the patterns of school bullying involvement in Chinese adolescents. In addition, covariates significantly associated with school bullying patterns included (a) attending boarding school, (b) level of schooling (e.g., primary, middle, and high school), and (c) self-perceived academic performance. Recommendations for school bullying interventions and future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]