School bullying victimization and self-rated health and life satisfaction: The gendered buffering effect of educational expectations

Abstract

Ample work has established the adverse impact of school bullying victimization on health and well-being outcomes. However, few studies have explored the potential coping mechanisms. To address this shortcoming, the present study examines three questions. First, how is school bullying victimization associated with self-rated health and life satisfaction? Second, how do educational expectations moderate those associations? Third, do any observed patterns further differ for boys and girls? Using a nationally representative survey of urban areas from China collected in 2016, we found that traditional bullying victims were more likely than non-victims to report poor self-related health and life satisfaction We observed similar patterns for cyberbullying victims. Interestingly, traditional bullying victimization fully explained the effect of cyberbullying victimization on poor self-rated health and life satisfaction among boys. The patterns for girls remained less clear. Finally, educational expectations appeared to buffer the effect of cyberbullying victimization on poor self-rated health and life satisfaction for boys only. Overall, our findings underscored the complexity of documenting health and well-being disparities by bullying victimization.