Prevalence of bullying among primary and middle school students in Beijing / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To explore the prevalence and characteristics of traditional bullying and cyberbullying behavior among primary and middle school students and to provide evidence for the comprehensive intervention.@*Methods@#An anonymous self-administrated questionnaire survey was conducted among 12 417 students (grade 5 to 12) selected with multi-stage cluster random sampling in 16 districts in Beijing between Sept. and Oct. 2017. Descriptive statistics and chi square test were used for statistical analysis.@*Results@#In the past 6 months, 2.6% of students were reported to be involved in traditional bullying,10.6% were reported of being bullied. 1.0% of students were reported to be involved in cyberbullying, and 2.8% reported of being bullied. Boys reported significantly higher rates of traditional bullying and cyberbullying behavior. The reporting rate of traditional bullying and cyberbullying gradually increased with grade. The reporting rate of traditional bullying was highest in junior high school, while cyberbullying was common in both junior and senior high school. Students with low academic performance were more likely to involve in bully as perpetrators in both types(P<0.05). The higher maternal education background was, the higher their children involved in bullying perpetrators(P=0.03). The proportion of students who reported bullied at school was higher than cyberbullying(χ2=15.25, P<0.01). Cyberbullying were more likely to take place outside school compared with traditional bullying(χ2=3.98, 9.76, P<0.05). Compared with traditional bullying, cyberbullying has a higher proportion of various types of bullying or being bullied.@*Conclusion@#Bullying is still prevalent among primary and middle school students in Beijing, and cyberbullying is becoming more widespread. Schools, family and the community-based comprehensive prevention strategies should be developed for a safe campus and network environment to prevent traditional and cyberbullying.