Study On The Prevalence Of Peer Bullying And Its Relationship With Puberty Timing Among Junior High School Students

Objective To explore the prevalence of bullying perpetration and victimization and the relationship between puberty timing and peer bullying in junior high school students.Methods A stratified cluster sampling method was used to select 2 958 junior high school students in in three cities of Anhui province.Self-reports on physical,verbal,relational and cyber bullying involvement and self-administered rating scale for pubertal development were collected.Chi-square tests were adopted to compare the prevalence in male and female and involvement in different forms of peer bullying behaviors.Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to explore the influence factors for peer bullying behaviors.Chi-square tests were adopted to compare the prevalence in early,middle and late stage and involvement in different forms of peer bullying behaviors.Results Among 2 704 junior high school students which were younger than 15 years old,the rate of verbal bullying victims in the last two was highest(53.8%),and the rate of cyber bullying to others was lowest(4.5%).Female(OR=0.63),mother education(OR=0.65),having a good relationship with mother(OR=0.74),having a good relationship with father(OR=0.77),general academic performance(OR=0.76),and good academic performance(OR=0.69)were associated with lower risk for physical bullying others,whereas grade 8(OR=1.37)and out-gonging personality(OR=1.68)were associated with increased risk for physical bullying others.Female(OR=0.47)and having a good relationship with father(OR=0.79)was associated with lower risk for verbal bullying others,whereas grade 8(OR=1.62)and grade 9(OR=1.57)was associated with increased risk for verbal bullying others.Having a good relationship with father(OR=0.66)and good academic performance(OR=0.66)was associated with lower risk for relational bullying others,whereas Grade 8(OR=1.75)and grade 9(OR=1.42)were associated with increased risk for relational bullying others.Female(OR=0.77),grade 9(OR=0.66),and having a good relationship with father(OR=0.66)were associated with lower risk for cyber bullying others.Female(OR=0.45),general academic performance(OR=0.77),and good academic performance(OR=0.63)were associated with lower risk for being physically bullied by others,poor appearance(OR=1.51)was associated with increased risk for being physically bullied by others.Female(OR=0.60)and good academic performance(OR=0.71)was associated with lower risk for being verbally bullied by others,whereas grade 8(OR=1.49),out-going personality(OR=1.57),and poor appearance(OR=1.87)were associated with increased risk for being verbally bullied by others.Female(OR=0.87),having a good relationship with father(OR=0.75),general family status(OR=0.74),and good family status(OR=0.67)were associated with lower risk for being relational bullied by other,while grade 8(OR=1.32)and the single parent family(OR=1.42)were associated with increased risk for being relational bullied by others.Female(OR=0.49)and having a good relationship with father(OR=0.62)were associated with lower risk for being electronically bullied by others,while the single-parent family(OR=1.72)was associated with increased risk for being electronically bullied by others.There were significant difference of the rates of different type of bullying between boys and girls(p<0.05),except for been relational bullying by others.The rates of physical,verbal and cyber bullying to others,and have been verbal and cyber bullying by others were higher in those male students with middle and late stage of puberty than that with early stage of puberty(p<0.05).Among female students,only the rate of verbal bullying to others was higher in middle and late stage of puberty(p<0.05).Conclusion In this study,in the past two months,2704 junior middle school students which were younger than 15,the rate of verbal bullying victims in the last two was highest(53.8%),and the rate of cyber bullying to others was lowest(4.5%).In puberty stage of junior high school students,with the rise of developmental stages,a variety of reporting rates of peer bullying on the rise.It is highlight that we should prevent and control the peer bullying,especially among the adolescent boys.