A Systematic Review of Bullying and Victimization Among Adolescents in India

Abstract

This study provides a systematic review of literature from India on traditional bullying and victimization among school-going adolescents. A search of bibliographic electronic databases PsycINFO, MEDLINE, ERIC, Web of Science, and PubMed was performed in May 2020. Thirty-seven studies were included in the review. For each study included, the following specifics were examined: (a) methodological characteristics, (b) prevalence estimates of bullying behavior, (c) forms of bullying, (d) risk factors, and (e) consequences of bullying. It was found that bullying happens in India, and some risk factors for bullying and victimization in India are typical to the Indian context. In addition, bullying in India is associated with adverse consequences for both the aggressor and the victim. Many studies on bullying from India should be interpreted cautiously because of problems with data collection processes, instrumentation, and presentation of the findings. Cross-cultural comparisons for prevalence estimates, and longitudinal studies to examine the direction of possible influence between bullying and its correlates need to be conducted, to cater to the large adolescent population of India.

Body mass index and peer victimization: A transactional model

“…This was essential to avoid having the chaos of crossing lines and consequently scoring problems. Dyadic nominations of bully and victim status, received by peers from within a class, are found to be a reliable and valid estimate yielding consistent results with other informant reports across studies (Malamut et al, 2020; Veenstra et al, 2007) as well as in the Indian setting (Thakkar et al, 2020). A total score was computed based on the number of times an individual was marked as a victim by their classmates.…”

“…Similar findings have been reported in past research (Griffiths et al, 2006; Lee & Vaillancourt, 2019), where compared to average weight boys, some boys who are obese were more likely to be overt bullies, while other boys who are obese were more likely to be overt victims 1 year later, suggesting that BMI status has a mixed relationship with victimization among boys. Adolescent boys are more likely to engage in physical bullying as compared to girls (Smith & Ananiadou, 2003; Thakkar et al, 2020), and, hence, there may be some distinct advantage to being overweight or obese during adolescence for boys, as it may manifest physical dominance through greater strength, and the resulting popularity in the peer group may decrease their risk of victimization. If, nevertheless, they become victims, this could be because the boys deviate from appearance ideals or because they experience and show a lack of confidence in interactions with peers (Salmivalli & Peets, 2009).…”

“…The Illinois Bully‐Fight‐Victim Scale (Espelage & Holt, 2001) was used to assess self‐reported bullying and victimization. The scale has been found valid and reliable in western (Espelage et al, 2003), as well as Indian contexts (Sharma et al, 2020; Thakkar et al, 2020). We used data from the victim subscale for analyses.…”

“…Moreover, research with longitudinal designs to examine bidirectional associations between BMI and victimization through a reciprocal effect model is completely lacking in India. The present study focuses on cultural replication and cross‐validation of research in the field of BMI and victimization to determine the extent of generalizability of previous global findings in India (Thakkar et al, 2020).…”

“…Building on previous literature (Adams & Bukowski, 2008; Mamun et al, 2013), we hypothesize that there will be concurrent two‐term unidirectional relations (i.e., BMI predicts victimization, or victimization predicts BMI) as well as three‐term reciprocal relations (i.e., BMI predicts victimization experiences, and these experiences, in turn, are related to an increase in BMI; also victimization predicts BMI and this leads to further victimization of adolescents). In addition, given the differences observed in victimization experiences between boys and girls (Griffiths et al, 2006; Thakkar et al, 2020), the present study investigates differences in the association between BMI and victimization by conducting separate analyses for boys and girls. Multigroup model testing pathways across genders to compare differences between boys and girls within the same model, although interesting, was deemed as beyond the scope of the present research in the interest of the brevity of the study and reporting of results.…”