Experience of school bullying during junior high school period among college students: a retrospective study

  Objective  To retrospectively examine the status and influencing factors of school bullying during junior high school period among college students for developing effective measures to prevent school bullying.

  Methods  We conducted a questionnaire survey among 949 college students selected using cluster sampling in a college in Harbin city of Heilongjiang province between September and December 2017. Information on bullying and bullying victimization during junior high school were collected retrospectively and analyzed and measures for school bullying prevention were explored based on the evidences provided by the participants.

  Results  Experience of bullying and bullying victimization in junior high schools was reported by 148 (15.60%, including 84 males and 64 females) of the participants. Gender (χ² = 16.772, P < 0.01) and in a single parent family (χ² = 8.185, P = 0.004) are associated with bullying victimization. Female gender (odds ratio OR = 0.435, 95% confidence interval 95% CI: 0.299 – 0.633), better family economic condition (OR = 0.289, 95% CI: 0.145 – 0.576), with choleric temperament (OR = 0.295, 95% CI: 0.160 – 0.544) and sanguineous temperament (OR = 0.351, 95% CI: 0.209 – 0.590) are hindering factors for bullying victimization; whereas with a single parent family (OR = 1.291, 95% CI: 1.009 – 1.652), poor family economic condition (OR = 3.394, 95% CI: 1.641 – 7.019) and good academic achievement (OR = 2.253, 95% CI: 1.320 – 3.847) are risk factors for bullying victimization. There were 65.54% and 56.69% of the participants considering relevant regulation making and improvement of social environment being the most and the second effective measure to prevent school bullying.

  Conclusion  Risk factor-specific intervention measures for school bullying prevention should be developed based on evidences provided by the students with school bullying experience.