Bullying behaviour and psychosocial health among school students in New South Wales, Australia: cross sectional survey

British Medical Journal,  August 7, 1999  by Roberto Forero,  Lyndall McLellan,  Chris Rissel,  Adrian Bauman

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Prevalence of bullying behaviours

Table 1 presents the unadjusted prevalence of bullying behaviours and the studied variables by school year and sex. Table 2 presents the results from the multinomial logistic regression of students who bullied, who were bullied, and who were both bullied and bullied others. We used the group of students who reported neither having been bullied nor bullying other students as the comparison group.

Table 1 Unadjusted prevalence of bullying behaviour and health symptoms in 3918 students from schools in New South Wales

                                           Year 6

                                       Boys      Girls
Variable                              (n=642)   (n=580)

Bullying behaviour
Neither bullied nor bully              34.1      44.8
Bullied                                11.5      18.1
Bully                                  28.5      17.6
Both bullied and bully                 25.9      19.5
Psychosomatic symptoms (scores)(*)
Low (0-4)                              35.1      35.4
Moderate (5-8)                         27.4      25.7
Frequent (9-14)                        25.7      23.6
High (15-32)                           11.8      15.2
Mental health
Unhappy                                 7.7       6.9
Lonely                                  9.4      12.8
Social contact
Ostracised                              5.6       8.4
[is less than or equal to]
 2 evenings with friends               68.0      79.0
[is less than or equal to]
 3 days with friends after school      57.2      67.9
Risk behaviour
Current smoking (weekly or more         3.7       2.4
 often)
Reactions to school
Dislike school                         33.8      18.1
School is not nice place to be         40.2      24.0
Frequent absence without permission     3.0       0.7

                                           Year 8

                                       Boys      Girls
Variable                              (n=593)   (n=810)

Bullying behaviour
Neither bullied nor bully              26.5      45.9
Bullied                                15.5      13.3
Bully                                  27.5      21.4
Both bullied and bully                 30.5      19.4
Psychosomatic symptoms (scores)(*)
Low (0-4)                              35.8      27.2
Moderate (5-8)                         28.8      26.1
Frequent (9-14)                        21.9      26.0
High (15-32)                           13.5      20.7
Mental health
Unhappy                                14.1      16.3
Lonely                                 12.2      14.7
Social contact
Ostracised                              5.6       4.1
[is less than or equal to]
 2 evenings with friends               69.0      75.3
[is less than or equal to]
 3 days with friends after school      59.2      72.5
Risk behaviour
Current smoking (weekly or more        11.9      11.6
 often)
Reactions to school
Dislike school                         43.8      31.5
School is not nice place to be         62.3      60.8
Frequent absence without permission     5.8       2.4

                                           Year 10

                                       Boys      Girls
Variable                              (n=529)   (n=739)

Bullying behaviour
Neither bullied nor bully              36.1      61.0
Bullied                                 8.5       9.9
Bully                                  34.0      17.2
Both bullied and bully                 21.4      11.9
Psychosomatic symptoms (scores)(*)
Low (0-4)                              31.7      21.3
Moderate (5-8)                         31.9      28.4
Frequent (9-14)                        23.4      28.1
High (15-32)                           13.1      22.3
Mental health
Unhappy                                 7.6      13.8
Lonely                                 12.5      21.2
Social contact
Ostracised                              3.8       2.4
[is less than or equal to]
 2 evenings with friends               75.0      76.7
[is less than or equal to]
 3 days with friends after school      63.3      74.7
Risk behaviour
Current smoking (weekly or more        15.9      17.1
 often)
Reactions to school
Dislike school                         32.4      29.9
School is not nice place to be         63.0      56.4
Frequent absence without permission     5.3       2.5