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

Abstract

The study aimed to assess the prevalence and its correlates of infrequent and frequent bullying victimization (=BV) among school-going adolescents in five “Association of Southeast Asian Nations” (ASEAN) member states. The cross-sectional sample comprised 33,184 school adolescents (14.6 years mean age) from five ASEAN countries of the “Global School-based Student Health Survey” (GSHS) in 2015. Results indicate that 30.6% of participants reported any past-month BV, 33.9% in boys and 27.5 in girls, ranging from 11.8% in Laos to 48.7% in the Philippines. In the adjusted multinomial logistic regression analysis, students from the Philippines and Thailand, experience of hunger, sedentary behaviour, attending physical education classes, being underweight, being overweight or obese, ever amphetamine use, physically assaulted, school truancy, participation in a physical fight, injury, low peer support and psychological distress were associated with BV. Almost one in three adolescents were bullied and several associated variables were identified which can assist in targeting the strategies of intervention.