Victims of Bullying among Korean Adolescents: Prevalence and Association with Psychopathology Evaluated Using the Adolescent Mental Health and Problem Behavior Screening Questionnaire-II Standardization Study Data

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of victims of bullying and the demographic characteristics of victims, and their related psychopathology, in a Korean nationwide sample of youths in middle and high school over a one month period. METHODS: During the autumn of 2009, students in the 7th to 12th grades at 23 secondary schools participated in a nationwide, cross-sectional study. The study subjects completed the Adolescent Mental Health and Problem Behavior Screening Questionnaire- II (AMPQ-II) and Symptom Checklist-90-Revision (SCL-90-R). Based on the data acquired, descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients and multiple logistic regression analysis were performed. RESULTS: Among the 3364 participants, 2272 (67.54%) completed the questionnaire. The prevalence of victimization was 28.9%. Male gender was positively associated with victimization, and grade level was negatively related to victimization. The AMPQ-II bullying score (Factor 4) was significantly (p<.001) and positively correlated to the AMPQ-II student total score (r= 0.50), Worry and thought (Factor 1 ; r=0.38), Mood and suicide (Factor 2 ; r=0.31), Academic and Internet-related problems (Factor 3 ; r=0.24), Rule violations (Factor 5 ; r=0.23), and AMPQ-II teacher total score (r=0.11). Somatization (r=0.23), Obsessive-compulsive behavior (r=0.24), Interpersonal sensitivity (r=0.30), Depression (r=0.33), Anxiety (r=0.26), Hostility (r=0.30), Phobic anxiety (r=0.22), Paranoid ideation (r=0.36), and Psychoticism (r=0.31) results from the SCL-90-R were also found to be positively related to the AMPQ-II bullying score, and remained significant after adjusting for age and gender. A total of 26% of the victims reported suicidal ideations as compared to 9% of non-victims over the month prior to the evaluation (chi2=119.595, df=1, p<.001). The multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that the AMPQ-II bullying score significantly increased the risk of suicidal ideation [Exp(b)=1.55, df=1, p<.001] after adjusting for age and gender. CONCLUSION: School bullying was highly prevalent among Korean middle and high school students. This study provided strong evidence that suicidal ideation and psychopathology were serious problems among the victims of bullying.