Citation

Hellfeldt K, Gill PE, Johansson B. J. School Violence 2018; 17(1): 86-98.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15388220.2016.1222498

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Cross-sectional studies of bullying mask variability in categories of and persistence of bullying victimization. Longitudinal, individual-level data offers a greater insight into schoolchildren's psychosomatic maladjustment as a consequence of bullying. Swedish schoolchildren (n = 3,349), with unique identifiers, in 44 schools (4th-9th grade), answered a questionnaire at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Longitudinal trends for nonvictims (88%), ceased victims (4.7%), new victims (5.7%), and continuing victims (1.6%) revealed that new victims had the largest decrease in well-being; continuing victims had a smaller though not significant decrease; while ceased victims showed a small, (nonsignificant) increase in well-being over the measurement period. It was also discovered that children not bullied at baseline but bullied subsequently, differed, at baseline, from their never-bullied peers through lower levels of overall well-being. It is argued that this finding has implications for prevention strategies.

Language: en

Keywords

well-being; Bullying; individual-level longitudinal data; peer victimization; somatic and emotional maladjustment