State-Level Prevalence of Bullying Victimization Among Children and Adolescents, National Survey of Children’s Health, 2016-2017

Abstract

Bullying is a serious public health issue among children and adolescents in the United States. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of bullying victimization (defined as a child being bullied, picked on, or excluded by children) in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. We used data on bullying victimization from the 2016-2017 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). We stratified the sample by age: children aged 6-11 years (n = 21 142) and adolescents aged 12-17 years (n = 29 011). We conducted bivariate analyses to determine the prevalence of bullying victimization by state for each age group. In the survey, parents/caregivers responded to a question about whether it was “definitely true,” “somewhat true,” or “not true” that their child “is being bullied, picked on, or excluded by other children.” We combined “definitely true” and “somewhat true” responses to create a dichotomous variable for bullying victimization. Parents reported 22.4% of children aged 6-11 years and 21.0% of adolescents aged 12-17 years as experiencing bullying victimization during 2016-2017. The prevalence of bullying victimization among children ranged from 16.5% in New York State to 35.9% in Wyoming and among adolescents ranged from 14.9% in Nevada to 31.6% in Montana. The prevalence of bullying victimization among children or adolescents was >30% in 7 states: Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. These data can be used to inform state programs and policies to support bullying prevention efforts and services for children and adolescents who experience bullying. NSCH will continue to collect data on bullying victimization to track annual trends in national and state-level prevalence rates among children and adolescents.

Peer victimization (bullying) on mental health, behavioral problems, cognition, and academic performance in preadolescent children in the ABCD Study

“…In the current study, the prevalence of caregiver-reported bullying victimization was 15.3%, which is lower than the 22.4% of children aged 6-11 reported in the National Survey of Children's Health (Lebrun-Harris et al, 2020). Consistent with previous studies (Serafini et al, 2021), the prevalence of any NSSI or suicidality was higher among those being bullied (18.2%) compared to their non-bullied peers (7.4%).…”

Adolescent Peer Victimization and Deliberate Self-Harm: A Three-Wave Moderated Mediation Model

“…Large-scale surveys using internationally standard methodology to investigate teenager bullying victimization are still mainly limited to European and other Western countries (Chester et al, 2015; Lebrun-Harris et al, 2020; Lian et al, 2018). Considering the lack of large-sample research in China, the current study is based on a large sample of Chinese students.…”

Exploring the linkage between family financial struggle and children's bullying victimization: Implications for nursing and psychotherapeutic practices

“…The US Census Bureau employed a two‐phase data collection approach (Lebrun‐Harris et al, 2020). First, the participants completed an initial household screener, which included basic demographic characteristics and special healthcare needs of all children in the household.…”