A study of child bullying victimization in Xi'an, China: prevalence, correlates and co-occurrence with familyviolence

Abstract

Under the circumstances of rapid industrialization and urbanization, China has been undergoing a series of remarkable changes in the social, economic, and family structures. Meanwhile, the great majority of Chinese families are officially allowed to have only one child in China since the introduction of the OCFP in the late 1970s. But what is happening as China becomes more developed and children are much more valued? Are Chinese children well protected from intra- and extra-familial violence? This study focused on the topic of bullying victimization, and was devised to explore the scope and the magnitude of child’s being bullied in China. Besides, this study adopted the ecological model to examine the multiple-contextual risk factors of bullying victimization, and to test the applicability of this model in the Chinese socio-cultural context. This study also paid special attention to investigate the unique role of children’s experiences of family violence in relation with bullying victimization.

The present study used a subsample of the cross-sectional data from a representative population project in five cities of the Mainland China. The researcher actively participated in the whole process of the project, including being involved in the original methodology design and setting up of research questions. This dataset used a three-stage stratified random sampling design and included a total of 3175 students aged 15-17 years randomly selected from 24 schools in 3 districts (from both urban and rural areas) in Xi’an, China. Self-administrated questionnaires were employed to collect data. The Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ) and Relational Aggression Scale were used as measures for bullying victimization. Family violence experiences include child abuse and witnessing spouse violence in this study.

Results showed that 54.9% and 44.6% of Chinese children have been bullied in a lifetime and in the preceding-year, respectively, and cyber bullying victimization was more extensively common and frequently experienced by children. Meanwhile, the considerable overlap found between FV and bullying victimization indicated that a vast majority of children who were bullied by peers are also victims of child abuse or exposure to parental partner violence at home. Significant gender differences were observed both in FV and bullying victimization. Specifically, females were more likely to be indirect victims of FV, whereas males were more likely to be directly involved in child abuse and in all three subtypes of bullying victimization.

By performing a series of logistic regressions, the current study identified a number of correlates significantly associated with child bullying victimization, which included demographics (e.g., young age, male participant, parents’ education level were From 3 or below, having one or more siblings, were from families with divorced or separated parents, had an unemployed father at home, whose family had no income, from rural schools, not from key schools), children’s personal characteristics (i.e., smoking, gambling, alcohol abuse, low self-esteem, depression, APT, BPT, PTSD, and insecure attachment with parents), school-related factors (i.e., school type and school location), as well as FV experiences. Follow-up structured multiphase regression analyses further delineate the unique role of FV in association with the three types of bullying victimization by controlling for socio-demographics, individual characteristics and school variables. The theoretical and research contributions and practical implications of the present research were discussed, along with limitations and recommendations for future research.