Comparing children's experiences of schools-based bullying across countries,

TY - JOUR

T1 - Comparing children's experiences of schools-based bullying across countries,

AU - Bradshaw, Jonathan Richard

AU - Rees, Gwyther

AU - Crous, Gemma

AU - Turner, Nicholas

N1 - © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy.

PY - 2017/9/17

Y1 - 2017/9/17

N2 - We make use of a newly-available international data set from a survey of children aged 8 to 12 years old across 16 diverse countries to explore variations in rates of schools-based bullying of children and the associations between experiences of being bullied and child subjective well-being, both within and between countries. The analysis is consistent with previous international studies in showing very substantial variation in rates of bullying at the country level. There are also between-country variations in the rates of different types of bullying. In terms of individual variations, we find significant variations in the likelihood of being bullied according to age, gender and deprivation, although the influence of these factors varies by country. There was no apparent link at a country-level between rates of bullying and mean life satisfaction scores. On the other hand, in almost all countries, children who had been bullied had significantly lower subjective well-being than children who had not. However there were substantial differences in the strength of association across countries. We find some tentative evidence to suggest that being bullied may make a greater contribution to explaining variations in child subjective well-being in rich countries than in poor countries. The implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

AB - We make use of a newly-available international data set from a survey of children aged 8 to 12 years old across 16 diverse countries to explore variations in rates of schools-based bullying of children and the associations between experiences of being bullied and child subjective well-being, both within and between countries. The analysis is consistent with previous international studies in showing very substantial variation in rates of bullying at the country level. There are also between-country variations in the rates of different types of bullying. In terms of individual variations, we find significant variations in the likelihood of being bullied according to age, gender and deprivation, although the influence of these factors varies by country. There was no apparent link at a country-level between rates of bullying and mean life satisfaction scores. On the other hand, in almost all countries, children who had been bullied had significantly lower subjective well-being than children who had not. However there were substantial differences in the strength of association across countries. We find some tentative evidence to suggest that being bullied may make a greater contribution to explaining variations in child subjective well-being in rich countries than in poor countries. The implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

KW - Bullying

KW - Comparative research

KW - Happiness

KW - Subjective well-being

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85021717905&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.06.060

DO - 10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.06.060

M3 - Article

SN - 0190-7409

VL - 80

SP - 171

EP - 180

JO - Children and Youth Services Review

JF - Children and Youth Services Review

ER -