The objectives of the current study were to estimate the prevalence of nine types of bullying victimization among adolescents in Grades 7 to 12, and examine how these experiences vary according to gender and school grade. Data were drawn from the Manitoba Youth Health Survey. The sample size was N = 64 174 and included boys and girls from Grades 7 to 12. Nine types of bullying victimization were assessed. Gender and grade differences were noted with girls being more to likely than boys to report six types of victimization. The odds of bullying victimization were higher in Grades 8 to 12 compared to Grade 7. Effective anti-bullying intervention strategies need to address a range of victimization types and should consider gender and school grade. Interventions should start before Grade 7 and continue until the end of Grade 12.

Importance The success in ending the COVID-19 pandemic rests partly on the mass uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine. Little work has been done to understand vaccine willingness among older adolescents and young adults. This is important since this age group may be less likely to adhere to public health guidelines. Objective To understand willingness of getting a vaccine and reasons for vaccine hesitancy among a sample of older adolescents and young adults. Design Data were from the Well-Being and Experiences study (The WE Study), a longitudinal community-based sample of older adolescents and young adults collected from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada from 2017 to 2020 (n = 664). Setting The study setting was a community-based observational longitudinal study. Participants Participants for the study were aged 14 to 17 years old at baseline in 2016-17 (n = 1000). Data were also collected on one parent/caregiver. Waves 2 (n = 747) and 3 (n = 664) were collected in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Exposures The main exposures were sociodemographic factors, health conditions, COVID-19 knowledge, and adversity history. Main Outcomes The main outcomes were COVID-19 vaccine willingness, hesitancy, and reasons for hesitancy. Results Willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccine was 65.4%. Willingness did not differ by age, sex, or mental health conditions, but did differ for other sociodemographic characteristics, physical health conditions, COVID-19 knowledge, practicing social/physical distancing, and adversity history. The most common reasons for not wanting a vaccine were related to safety, knowledge, and effectiveness. Sex differences were noted. Conclusions and Relevance Increasing uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine among older adolescents and young adults may rely on targeting individuals from households with lower income, financial burden, and adversity history, and generating public health messaging specifically aimed at vaccine safety, how it works to protect against infection, and why it is important to protect oneself against a COVID-19 infection.

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Background: Despite increased understanding of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), very little advancement has been made in how ACEs are defined and conceptualized. The current objectives were to determine: 1) how well a theoretically-derived ACEs model fit the data, and 2) the association of all ACEs and the ACEs factors with poor self-rated mental and physical health. Methods: Data were obtained from the Well-Being and Experiences Study, survey data of adolescents aged 14 to 17 years (n = 1002) and their parents (n = 1000) in Manitoba, Canada collected from 2017 to 2018. Statistical methods included confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and logistic regression models. Results: The study findings indicated a two-factor solution for both the adolescent and parent sample as follows: a) child maltreatment and peer victimization and b) household challenges factors, provided the best fit to the data. All original and expanded ACEs loaded on one of these two factors and all individual ACEs were associated with either poor self-rated mental health, physical health or both in unadjusted models and with the majority of findings remaining statistically significant in adjusted models (Adjusted Odds Ratios ranged from 1.16-3.25 among parents and 1.12-8.02 among adolescents). Additionally, both factors were associated with poor mental and physical health. Conclusions: Findings confirm a two-factor structure (i.e., 1) child maltreatment and peer victimization and 2) household challenges) and indicate that the ACEs list should include original ACEs (i.e., physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect, exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV), household substance use, household mental health problems, parental separation or divorce, parental problems with police) and expanded ACEs (i.e., spanking, peer victimization, household gambling problems, foster care placement or child protective organization (CPO) contact, poverty, and neighborhood safety).

There are strong relationships between bullying victimization and illicit drug use among boys and girls in grades 7 to 12, indicating that reductions in bullying victimization may result in reductions in illicit drug use. Grade and gender differences may signify the need for early and gender-specific bullying prevention and intervention strategies.