Relationship Between Previous Experiences Of Being Bullied And Psychological And Behavioral Problems In College Students

ObjectiveThe objective of the study was to analyze the reporting rate of psychological and behavioral problems in college students of different academic levels, and to explore the relationship between previous experiences of being bullied and psychological and behavioral problems in college students, through the description of current status of being bullied in college students of different academic levels.MethodsWith stratified cluster sampling method,1850 subjects (1036 males,927 females) in a higher vocational college and a key comprehensive university directly under the Ministry of Education in Shanghai were selected to complete an anonymous self-administered questionnaire, which was compiled based on 2005 National Adolescent Health Risk Behavior Questionnaire in 18 Provinces of China, Students’Learning Stress Scale, Social Support Rating Scale, SCL-90 Scale and 2008 Adolescent Health-related Behavior Questionnaire in China. Previous experiences of being bullied, smoking, drinking, sexual behaviors, interpersonal sensitivity and sleep disorders were covered in the survey. Binary logistic regression analysis method was used for statistical analysis, with SPSS19.0 statistical software being employed.Results(1) Among the six categories of previous experiences of being bullied in students from the comprehensive university and the vocational college, the percentage of any category of being bullied was up to 36.5%, the percentage of being verbally bullied was the highest in both college students. Significant differences were observed in both college students in terms of reporting rates of being threatened (vocational college 14.3%, comprehensive university 22.3%), being physically bullied (vocational college 10.9%, comprehensive university 14.7%) and being extorted (vocational college 9.6%, comprehensive university 13.7%), all higher in the comprehensive university than that of the vocational college. Among all subjects, the percentage of students who had been bullied by one category was 14.2%; the percentages of students who had been bullied by two, three, four and five categories were 7.6%,4.9%,3.4% and 2.5%, respectively; the percentage of students who had been bullied by all categories was 4.0%. In both college students, the reporting rate of being bullied was decreased with the progression of elementary school stage to junior high school stage, and to high school stage. In both college students, the percentage of students who had the experiences of being bullied in all subjects decreased with the duration being prolonged. Furthermore, in one study phase, the percentage of students who had being bullied was higher in the comprehensive university than that of the vocational college; while in 2 and 3 study phases, the percentage of students who had being bullied was higher in the vocational college than that of the comprehensive university. The difference was statistically significant.(2) In both college students, the reporting rate of mild interpersonal sensitivity was 15.4%, severe interpersonal sensitivity 4.4%, mild sleep disorder 14.1%, severe sleep disorder 3.7%, ex-smoking 37.5%, current smoking 22.1%, current heavy smoking 1.5%, ex-drinking 75.0%, current drinking 44.3%, current heavy drinking 29.0%, sexual behavior 11.8%. Apart from current smoking and heavy smoking, reporting rates of other experiences were all lower in the vocational college than that of the comprehensive university.(3) The experience of being bullied was closely associated with the psychological and behavioral problems in college students being surveyed, manifested as:the self-reporting rates of psychological problems (e.g., interpersonal sensitivity and sleep disorder, etc.) and health risk behaviors (e.g., smoking, drinking and sexual behavior, etc.) in students with the experiences of being bullied were obviously higher than that of students without the experiences of being bullied. The longer the duration of being bullied was, the higher the risk of developing obvious interpersonal relation disturbance, sleep disorder, current heavy smoking and drinking was. The results of the study were statistically significant. The study also revealed that the relationship between previous experiences of being bullied and sexual behaviors in both college students was not obvious.Conclusions:The experience of being bullied during childhood was associated with the psychological and behavioral problems in college students. Proper interventions should be instituted towards the bullying/being bullied phenomenon within primary and secondary students, so as to promote the health education of college students, and to guide the formation of healthy habits and lifestyles in college students.