Objective To explore the prevalence and determinants of bullying behavior among floating children in Dongguan city of Guangdong province, and to provide evidences for intervention on bullying behavior.
Methods A total of 1 340 floating children were recruited from 4 private middle schools and 4 public middle schools in Dongguan city using stratified cluster random sampling. A self-administered anonymous questionnaire survey was then conducted among the floating children with Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire (OBVQ) in April 2016. Logistic regression was used to analyze the determinants of bullying behavior.
Results Among the 1 340 respondents, 129 (9.63%) reported behaviors of bullying others and more boys (13.57%) reported behaviors of bullying others than the girls (4.24%). Of the respondents, 8.51%, 2.16%, and 1.87% reported verbal, relational, and physical bullying. Totally 298 (22.24%) of the respondents reported experience of being bullied and more boys (27.26%) reported being bullied than the girls (15.37%). The proportion of the respondents reporting being verbally, relationally, and physically bullied were 19.78%, 5.22%, and 4.33%, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that studying in a private schools and being a senior student were protective factors against bullying others and being bullied among the respondents; while the risk factors of bullying others included male gender, with a mother changing jobs frequently, cigarette smoking, and alcohol drinking and the risk factors of being bullied were male gender, poor family relationship, poor relationship with classmates, with a mother changing jobs frequently, and alcohol drinking.
Conclusion Bullying behavior is prevalent among floating children and the occurrence of the behavior is influenced by individual, family, school and health risk behaviors. This study suggests comprehensive interventions on bullying behavior should be taken among the children.
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