Objective  To explore the prevalence and influencing factors of school bullying among high school children left behind by both mother and father in Hunan province.

  Methods  Using multistage stratified cluster sampling, we recruited 8 439 children from 32 high schools in 4 prefectures of Hunan province for a self-administered anonymous questionnaire survey conducted during April – July 2018. The Olweus Bullying/Victimization Questionnaire (OBVQ) and a self-designed questionnaire were used in the survey. Among all the participants, 1 506 children with both maternal and paternal migration were included in the analysis.

  Results  Of the 1506 left-behind children, the overall prevalence of school bullying victimization and perpetration were 20.39% and 5.64%, respectively. Verbal bullying victimization was the most common type of school bullying reported by 17.60% of victimized children. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed following significant risk factors for school bullying victimization: male gender (odds ratio OR = 2.116, 95% confidence interval 95%CI: 1.471 – 3.045), playing violent games frequently (OR = 1.624, 95%CI: 1.040 – 2.536), rarely or never communicating with their parents (OR = 1.528, 95%CI: 1.066 – 2.189), frequent quarrels between parents or primary caregivers (OR = 3.127, 95%CI: 1.659 – 5.895), lack of perceived safety in school (OR = 1.876, 95%CI: 1.290 – 2.728), and with a perceived disharmony atmosphere in class (OR = 1.604, 95%CI: 1.138 – 2.261).

  Conclusion  School bullying victimization is common among high school children with both maternal and paternal migration in Hunan province and targeted interventions should be developed for comprehensive prevention of the school bullying.