Search

Females exposed to child sexual abuse (CSA) are at an increased risk of experiencing further victimization in adolescence. Associations between CSA and several forms of cyber and in-person peer bullying victimization were assessed in a prospective, longitudinal study. Females exposed to substantiated CSA and a matched comparison group (N = 422) were followed over a two-year period. Bullying experiences were assessed in both survey and qualitative interviews. Qualitative data were coded and used to describe the types (e.g., cyber, physical, verbal), and foci (e.g., threats, physical appearance) of bullying victimization. Logistic regression was used to assess the odds that CSA was associated with subsequent bullying victimization, adjusted for demographics, social networking use, and prior bullying. CSA-exposed females were at an increased risk of multiple forms of bullying victimization with a persistent risk of bullying victimization over time. Specifically, they had 2.6 times higher odds of experiencing any bullying at follow-up, 2.9 times higher odds of experiencing cyberbullying at follow-up, and 2 times higher odds of experiencing combined cyber/in-person bullying at follow-up. CSA-exposed females were more likely than comparison females to experience bullying regarding their appearance/weight and dating relationships. Findings provide further insight into the unique circumstances of the cyberbullying and in-person bullying experienced by CSA-exposed females. Females exposed to child sexual abuse (CSA) are at an increased risk of experiencing bullying victimization, specifically cyberbullying and combined cyber/in-person bullying, as well as bullying about their appearance and dating relationships. These findings indicate that bullying prevention needs to include trauma-focused components to target these uniquely vulnerable females.

The current study used meta-regression to establish trends in bullying from 1998 to 2017, to identify factors that help explain variation in bullying trends, and to determine differences in the trends by gender and grade. This study focused on trends of face-to-face (FTF) bullying victimization and perpetration, cyberbullying victimization, relational bullying victimization, verbal bullying victimization, and physical bullying victimization, as well as characteristics of the youth involved. It also explored methodological and survey differences to help determine which factors contribute to variation from study to study. A systematic search found 91 studies reporting trends of bullying, from 1998 to 2017, that met predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The findings illustrate no significant time trend when looking at FTF bullying victimization, yet an increasing time trend for cyberbullying victimization. Additional trends begin to emerge when stratifying the findings by grade and gender, with FTF bullying victimization among boys declining, while FTF bullying victimization among girls is increasing. Across both FTF bullying victimization and cyberbullying victimization, younger adolescents report significantly more bullying than older adolescents, and this is consistent over time. Verbal and physical bullying victimization as well as FTF bullying perpetration have significantly declined over time. This study also identified key variables that contribute to the variation from trend study to trend study. The implications of these findings inform both policy and practice and provide insight into the overall scope of bullying within the United States.

Bully-victims are often found to be the most high-risk group involved in bullying, yet limited prior research has explored differences among bully-victims. This study aims to fill that gap by exploring within-group differences of youth involved in both bullying perpetration and victimization. In a nationally representative sample of 165 youth ages 5 to 17, four bully-victim types were created using cutoff points based on the amount of perpetration and victimization reported: high bully-victims ( n = 38), aggression predominant bully-victims ( n = 67), victimization predominant bully-victims ( n = 23), and moderate bully-victims ( n = 37). Analyses revealed distinct differences among the groups, particularly relating to traumatic symptoms, types of bullying involvement, and nonvictimization adversity. The findings confirm that there is heterogeneity among bully-victims. The most substantial difference was found between the high group and the moderate group, with the high group significantly more likely to report depression ( p < .05) and anxiety symptoms ( p < .05), and more than two times more likely to experience past-year adversity than the moderate group. The findings from this study indicate that youth involved in high amounts of both perpetration and victimization are considerably more at risk of traumatic symptoms and nonvictimization adversity than youth involved in fewer bullying behaviors. These findings can be used to inform both research and practice, particularly in regard to targeted evidence-based interventions that meet the unique needs of each type.

Bullying is a public health issue impacting youth around the globe, yet it does not impact all youth equally. Using meta-regression, this study examines 14,861 effect sizes from 87 different studies that examine cyber- and traditional bullying victimization by race/ethnicity in the United States. We employed a rigorous systematic search and data extraction process. We examined moderators, such as the region of the study and factors related to survey design, to see how these impacted reported rates and rates over time by race/ethnicity. Overall, trends in rates of traditional bullying and cyberbullying victimization vary over time by race, grade, and gender. Specifically, we found that Black youth report among the lowest rates of bullying victimization with rates rising over time, while White and multi-racial youth report among the highest rates of traditional and cyberbullying victimizations over time. The findings highlight important areas of practice and policy, specifically regarding implementing bullying prevention programs and tailoring programs to the needs and diversity of the student body. In addition, the rising or stable trends in cyberbullying victimization across groups indicate an urgent need for more education around digital literacy and online safety and the development of empathy in online interactions. • Black youth report the lowest rates of bullying victimization, with rates rising over time. • Multi-racial youth report among the highest rates of bullying victimization. • American Indian/Alaska Native youth report more bullying victimization in some parts of the US. • White youth report high rates of bullying victimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Programs are more effective at reducing bullying among boys than girls. • US programs are less effective at reducing bullying among girls and boys. • Programs conducted outside of the US are effective with both boys and girls. • Certain features of the included studies had an impact on the outcomes by gender. This paper presents the results from a meta-analytical review of the effectiveness of bullying prevention programs for boys and girls. A systematic search of three online databases was conducted of evaluations published between 1990 and 2018. The abstract review returned 352 articles, after full-text review the search yielded a final sample of 22 articles. The overall whole sample results suggest that bullying prevention programs are effective at reducing bullying among boys, but not girls; however, further analysis revealed that the programs are effective for both boys and girls outside of the United States, and ineffective for both boys and girls within the United States. Overall (both within and outside the United States), boys who participated in a bullying prevention program had 15% (95% CI: 1.01–1.31, p <.05) higher odds of a reduction in bullying victimization compared to boys in the control group, while boys and girls outside of the United States had 34% (95% CI: 1.11–1.62, p <.01) and 21% (95% CI: 1.00–1.62, p <.05) higher odds of a reduction bullying victimization. The findings suggest that prevention programs are largely effective at reducing bullying victimization, particularly among boys, but might be less effective among girls overall, and for both boys and girls within the United States. Future research needs to explore the impact of prevention programs on girls, as well as the divergent effect of programs within the United States compared to internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results from a meta-analytical review of the effectiveness of bullying prevention programs on three subtypes of traditional bullying victimization: physical, verbal, and relational. A systematic search of three online databases was conducted for bullying prevention program evaluations published between 1990 and 2018. The search yielded a final sample of 33 articles that met the identified inclusion criteria. The results of the meta-analysis suggest that bullying prevention programs are effective at reducing physical and relational forms of bullying victimization, but not verbal forms, at least in the United States. The results found that youth who participated in a prevention program, both inside and outside of the United States had 32% higher odds of a reduction in relational and physical bullying victimization compared to the control group, and 28% higher odds of a reduction in verbal bullying victimization for programs implemented outside the United States. The US programs were not effective with verbal bullying victimization. Future research could explore this potential gap related to verbal bullying victimization, and the difference in findings between studies conducted in the United States and those conducted internationally. • Bullying prevention programs are more effective at reducing relational and physical forms of bullying victimization • Bullying prevention programs are less effective at reducing verbal bullying victimization • Bullying prevention programs appear to be more effective when implemented outside of the United States [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]