Bullying victimization and adverse health behaviors among school‐going adolescents in South Asia: Findings from the global school‐based student health survey

Abstract

Background: Bullying among adolescents is a global public health issue and has adverse behavioral and mental health consequences, yet a little is known about the relationship between bullying victimization and adverse health behaviors in adolescence in South Asian countries. Methods: Data for this cross-sectional analysis were extracted from the global school-based student health survey (GSHS) in Bangladesh (n = 2,989), 2014 and in Nepal (n = 6,529), 2015. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify the associations between bullying victimization and adverse health behaviors or outcomes: physical violence, sexual history, tobacco use, alcohol use, drug use, suicide ideation, plan, attempt, loneliness, and sleeping difficulty. Results: The prevalence of bullying victimization that occurred for a minimum of 1 day during the 30 days preceding the survey was 24.5% in Bangladesh and 50.9% in Nepal. This study observed significant relationships between bullying victimization

Prevalence and Correlates of Infrequent and Frequent Bullying Victimization among School Adolescents from Five Southeast Asian Countries

“…The investigation assessed the prevalence and correlates of BV among school adolescents in five ASEAN countries. The overall prevalence of BV (30.6%) was similar to the global prevalence (30%) [2], and lower than in Nepal (50.9%) [3], and Pakistan (41.3%) [5]. The prevalence of past-month BV of 29.3% in Thailand was similar to the 2008 Thailand GSHS (27.8%) [7], of 48.7% in the Philippines was higher than in the 2003 to 2011 Philippines GSHS (34.7%-45.0%) [7], and of 20.6% in Indonesia was much lower than in the 2007 Indonesia GSHS (50.0%) [16].…”

“…[1] (p.235) Bullying victimization (=BV) can be better prevented if the epidemiology and determinants are known in a given population [1]. Globally, there is a high proportion of BV among adolescents (about 30% past month) [2], ranging from 50.9% (past month) in Nepal [3], 45.0% (past month) in 2011 in the Philippines [4], 41.3% (past month) in Pakistan [5], 44.6% (past year) in China [6], to 27.8% (past month) in Thailand [7] in Asian countries. There is limited recent information on the prevalence and correlates of BV among adolescents in ASEAN countries [8].…”

Bullying among children and adolescents in the SAARC countries: A scoping review

“… 36. Rahman et al., 2020 Bangladesh Nepal 2989 6529 13–17 School Cross-sectional research 24.5% in Bangladesh 50.9% in Nepal Students who experienced >10 days of bullying in the past 30days had aOR of engaging in physical violence of 16.16 (pooled data) Suicidal ideas aOR 5.88 Suicide attempt 6.50 37. Rana et al., 2020 India 667 12–14 School Cross-sectional research 25.6% any bullying Victimization 16% Bullying 5.2% Bully victimization 4.3% Girls had significantly higher verbal bullying compared to boys Boys had significantly higher physical bullying compared to girls Predictors of bullying behaviour included boys (bully OR 4.24), having emotional problems (bully-victim OR 4.36) peer relation problems (victim OR 2.77) 38.…”

“…It is also bullying when a student is teased a lot in an unpleasant way or when a student is left out of things on purpose. It is not bullying when two students of about the same strength or power argue or fight or when teasing is done in a friendly and fun way.” Global School Based Health Survey— Dema et al., 2019 ; Irish and Murshid, 2020 ; Khan et al., 2020 ; Khan and Khan, 2020 ; Murshid, 2017 , 2018 ; Neupane et al., 2020 ; Pandey et al., 2020 , 2021 ; Rahman et al., 2020 ; Shah et al., 2019 ; Shaikh et al., 2019 ; Wang et al., 2020 NA Instruments used: Adolescent Peer Relation Instrument Mansoor and Shahzad, 2020 Validation study, Bangla translation of the cyber victim part of the cyber victim and bullying scale Mallik and Radwan, 2020 No details given Bullying behaviour scale Abid et al., 2017 No details given Bullying victimization questionnaire SEHER intervention trial— Shinde et al., 2018 , 2020 ; Singla et al., 2021 Coefficient alpha mentioned, translated and contextualized Hindi version of the Korean-Peer Nomination Inventory (K–PNI) Sethi et al., 2019 No details given Illinois Bully scale Sharma et al., 2020 ; Thakkar et al., 2019 , 2021 Coefficient alpha mentioned for English and Hindi versions Illinois Bully scale and Cyber harassment student survey Sharma et al., 2017 No details given International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect Child Abuse Screening Tool for Children Haque et al., 2021 Not details given Interview Naveed et al., 2019 ; Naveed et al., 2020 11 ite...…”

“…Significant associations have been found in relation to bullying behaviours (for victims, bullies and bully victims) and various mental health outcomes, including depressive symptoms (OR = 1.97) ( Bhatt et al., 2020 ), Anxiety symptoms (aOR = 2.40–6.00) ( Khan and Khan, 2020 ; Neupane et al., 2020 ), psychological distress (OR = 2.66–3.44) ( Lee et al., 2019 ), suicidal ideas and attempts (OR = 2.23–5.88 & OR = 2.94–6.60) ( Irish and Murshid, 2020 ; Rahman et al., 2020 ), and tobacco use (aOR 1-93-2.05) ( Khan et al., 2020 ; Neupane et al., 2020 ). Both externalizing and internalizing symptoms were significantly higher when considering combined bullying as compared to either traditional or cyberbullying in both sexes ( Chudal et al., 2021 ).…”