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Defending behaviors, bullying roles, and their associations with mental health in junior high school students: a population-based study.

ABSTRACT: Students should be encouraged to help prevent or stop bullying. However, defending victims of bullying can impact on mental health. It is not only bystanders who may defend victims, but bullies, victims and bully-victims can also have defending behaviors. Nevertheless, most studies of defending behaviors have been limited to an examination of the reactions of bystanders or those not involved in bullying and have ignored the other players. The aim of this study is to investigate the associations between defending behaviors and mental health among bullies, victims, bully-victims and bystanders.Associations among defending behaviors, mental health (including depressive symptoms and social anxiety), and bullying experiences were cross-sectionally examined in 3441 students (13-15 years old.) from 20 randomly selected junior high schools in Taiwan using a self-report questionnaire. SAS 9.3 Survey Analysis procedures were used to conduct descriptive analysis and multiple regression models.Defending behaviors were associated with bullying roles and were higher in victims than in bullies or bystanders. Defending behaviors were positively associated with social anxiety and depressive symptoms. After stratifying by bullying roles, defending behaviors were positively associated with social anxiety in bystanders, and were positively associated with depressive symptoms in victims and bystanders. However, defending behaviors were not significantly associated with mental health indicators in bullies.The associations between defending behaviors and mental health varied according to bullying roles. The results suggest that bystanders and victims experience more mental health effects than bullies. Intervention programs aimed at preventing bullying should focus on strategies that minimize social anxiety and depression in victims and bystanders, and urge students to help vulnerable peers during bullying events.

SUBMITTER: Wu WC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5057406 | biostudies-other | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Defending behaviors, bullying roles, and their associations with mental health in junior high school students: a population-based study.

Wu Wen-Chi WC Luu Shyuemeng S Luh Dih-Ling DL

BMC public health 20161010 1

<h4>Background</h4>Students should be encouraged to help prevent or stop bullying. However, defending victims of bullying can impact on mental health. It is not only bystanders who may defend victims, but bullies, victims and bully-victims can also have defending behaviors. Nevertheless, most studies of defending behaviors have been limited to an examination of the reactions of bystanders or those not involved in bullying and have ignored the other players. The aim of this study is to investigat ...[more]

PMID: 27724881

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Project description:Bullying victimization by peers is highly prevalent in childhood and adolescence. There is convincing evidence that victimization is associated with adverse mental health consequences. In contrast, it has been found that perpetrators suffer no adverse mental health consequences. These findings originate from Western countries such as Germany but have rarely been investigated in collectivistic societies such as China. Furthermore, it has been rarely studied whether positive intrapersonal characteristics (e.g., personal resilience and self-efficacy) and interpersonal positive resources (e.g., social support) may mediate the impact of bullying on mental health. The current study used a path analytic model to examine, firstly, whether previous bullying experiences (both victimization and perpetration) are associated with current positive and negative mental health in university students and, secondly, whether these influences are mediated by social support, resilience, and self-efficacy. The model was tested in 5,912 Chinese and 1,935 German university students. It was found that in both countries, higher victimization frequency was associated with lower levels of social support, personal resilience, and self-efficacy, which in turn predicted poorer mental health. Moreover, and only in China, perpetration was negatively associated with social support and personal resilience but not self-efficacy. In contrast, in the German sample, perpetration experience was found to enhance one's self-efficacy, and the later was associated with better mental health. The results support a mediation model in which social support, personal resilience, and self-efficacy partially mediate the influence of victimization on mental health in both countries. For the relationship between perpetration and mental health, self-efficacy was the only full mediator in Germany, whereas in China, both social support and personal resilience were partial mediators. In conclusion, peer victimization has adverse effects on mental health in both Germany and China. Only in China, however, is perpetration also associated with adverse mental health outcomes. In contrast, getting ahead by bullying in an individualistic society such as Germany is associated with increased self-efficacy and mental health. The differences found between an individualistic country and a collectivistic country have important implications for understanding and planning interventions to reduce bullying.

Project description:IntroductionDepressive emotions can lead to subsequent unhealthy behaviors such as Internet addiction, especially in female adolescents; therefore, studies that examine the relationships among depression, health‑related behaviors, and Internet addiction in female adolescents are warranted.PurposeTo examine (1) the relationship between depression and health-related behaviors and (2) the relationship between depression and Internet addiction.MethodA cross-sectional study design was adopted using a structured questionnaire to measure depression, health-related behaviors, and Internet addiction in female adolescents. The data were collected from students of a junior college in southern Taiwan using convenience sampling to select the participants. The questionnaire was divided into four sections: demographics, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP), and the Internet Addiction Test (IAT).ResultsThe final sample comprised 503 female junior college students, with the participants mainly aged between 15 to 22 years (mean age = 17.30 years, SD = 1.34). Regarding the HPLP scores, the overall score, nutrition subscale score, and self-actualization subscale score were significantly and negatively associated with the CES-D depression score (p < 0.05-0.01). In other words, depression level was lower in students who exhibited more healthy behaviors, put more emphasis on dietary health, and had higher levels of self-admiration and confidence toward life. Regarding the IAT scores, the overall score and six domain scores were all positively associated (p < 0.01) to the CES-D depression score. In other words, the higher an individual's Internet addiction score was, the higher her depression level was.ConclusionsThe results confirmed the relationship between depression, health-related behaviors, and Internet addiction. The cultivation of health-related behaviors may help in lowering depressive symptoms. Teenagers with depression have higher risks of developing Internet addiction, and such addiction is likely to affect their daily functioning.

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Defending behaviors, bullying roles, and their associations with mental health in junior high school students: a population-based study.

Publications

Defending behaviors, bullying roles, and their associations with mental health in junior high school students: a population-based study.

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