Prevalence of traditional bullying and cyberbullying among children and adolescents in Australia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Despite increased awareness of the adverse impact of bullying on mental health, the prevalence of bullying in Australia is uncertain. The aim of the current study was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the prevalence of bullying (traditional and cyber) among Australian children and adolescents. This study synthesised bullying prevalence studies on victimisation experiences (being bullied) and perpetration experiences (bullying others). Method: A systematic review of electronic databases (A+ Education, EMBASE, ERIC, PubMed, PsycINFO and Scopus up to 27 May 2017) was conducted. In addition, reference lists of included studies, theses recorded at the National Library of Australia, and government websites were surveyed to identify local area data as well as state and nationally representative data. Overall, 898 studies were screened and out of the 126 studies assessed for eligibility, 46 satisfied the pre-determined inclusion criteria. Meta-analyses based on quality-effects models generated pooled prevalence estimates for each of the two types of bullying involvement (victimisation and perpetration), as well as distinct models for traditional bullying and cyberbullying experiences by the type of involvement. Results: Overall, the 12-month prevalence of bullying victimisation was 15.17% (95% confidence interval = [9.17, 22.30]) and perpetration was 5.27% (95% confidence interval = [3.13, 7.92]). The lifetime prevalence for traditional bullying victimisation was 25.13% (95% confidence interval = [18.73, 32.11]) and perpetration was 11.61% (95% confidence interval = [7.41, 16.57]). Cyberbullying victimisation and perpetration were less common with lifetime prevalence of 7.02% (95% confidence interval = [2.41, 13.54]) and 3.45% (95% confidence interval = [1.13, 6.84]), respectively. Conclusion: Bullying is common among children and adolescents in Australia. There is a need to improve the measurement of bullying using a standardised instrument and for prevalence estimates to be collected on a regular basis to assess change over time. Wide implementation of anti-bullying programmes in Australian schools is a viable public health approach for the prevention of mental health problems.

Effect of mental disorders on the association between bullying, suicidality and self-harm among Australian adolescents: A mediation analysis using data from a nationwide survey

“…In Australia, the prevalence of traditional bullying and cyberbullying was respectively around 29% and 12% in adolescents aged 12-17 years; which corroborated the previous studies in conducted Australia (6,30,35) and in other developed countries (20,44). In consistent with past researches, the study found that girls were more likely to be cyber bullied compared to boys; as cyberbullying is web-based and girls may communicate with each other more frequently than boys through text, social media and email (11,16,20).…”

“…However, none of them have included both types of bullying (traditional and cyber), non-suicidal self-harm and other mental health disorders such as attention-de cit-hyperactivity-disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder and anxiety disorders as a mediator in their analysis. In Australia, studies mostly were state-wide focusing on individual types of bullying, risk factors or mental health issues (1,29,30). Moreover, only Ford et al (1) and Islam et al (6) presented population-based estimates regarding the association of bullying with mental disorders, suicidality and self-harm health among Australian and adolescents.…”

The contribution of bullying victimisation to the burden of anxiety and depressive disorders in Australia

“…Table 1. Results of meta-analysis of the prevalence of bullying victimisation in childhood and adolescence in Australia (Jadambaa et al, 2019) Type of Involvement a Where studies reported victimisation only and victim-perpetration estimates, they were combined to give an overall victimisation rate that would be comparable to studies that did not specify the victim-perpetration grouping. b Where studies reported traditional bullying, cyber bullying, traditional and cyber bullying (included both estimates), and not specified whether cyber or traditional bullying, they were combined to give an overall estimate.…”

Cyberbullying as a Threat to Young

“…The model represents one of the possible ways of preventing cyberbullying in schools. There are many other approaches in the literature that also create preconditions for reducing this phenomenon (Jadambaa et al, 2019).…”