Bullying Victimization and Life Satisfaction Among Rural Left-Behind Children in China: A Cross-Sectional Study.
Yide Yang, Chanjuan Zheng, Ming Xie, Shuqian Yuan, Yuan Zeng, Meiling Zhou, Shuzhen Huang, Yulian Zhu, Xiangli Ye, Zhiyong Zou, Ying Wang, Julien Steven Baker
Author Information
Yide Yang: Key Laboratory of Molecular Epidemiology of Hunan Province, School of Medicine, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.
Chanjuan Zheng: Key Laboratory of Molecular Epidemiology of Hunan Province, School of Medicine, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.
Ming Xie: Key Laboratory of Molecular Epidemiology of Hunan Province, School of Medicine, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.
Shuqian Yuan: Key Laboratory of Molecular Epidemiology of Hunan Province, School of Medicine, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.
Yuan Zeng: Key Laboratory of Molecular Epidemiology of Hunan Province, School of Medicine, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.
Meiling Zhou: Key Laboratory of Molecular Epidemiology of Hunan Province, School of Medicine, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.
Shuzhen Huang: Key Laboratory of Molecular Epidemiology of Hunan Province, School of Medicine, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.
Yulian Zhu: Hunan Preventive and Treatment Center for Occupational Diseases, Changsha, China.
Xiangli Ye: Key Laboratory of Molecular Epidemiology of Hunan Province, School of Medicine, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.
Zhiyong Zou: Institute of Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Ying Wang: Department of Psychiatry, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
Julien Steven Baker: Department of Sport, Physical Education and Health, Centre for Health and Exercise Science Research, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.
This study aimed to evaluate the associations between bullying victimization and life satisfaction in primary school children and also investigate the interactive effects of left-behind status and bullying victimization on life satisfaction. Bullying victimization was measured using the Chinese version of the revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire. Life satisfaction was assessed using the Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS). Life satisfaction is composed of five domains, namely, family, school, friends, environment, and self-satisfaction. Left-behind status of rural children was defined as one or both their parents migrating to working in cities. The data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney tests, Chi-square tests, and multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses. A total of 810 primary school children were involved, of which 8.5% reported bullying victimization, and 44.3% were left-behind children (LBC). We found that bullying victimization was negatively associated with all domains of life satisfaction (all < 0.05). With further left-behind status-stratified analysis, we found that negative association between bullying victimization and friend satisfaction was more profound in the LBC group than in the non-LBC group [b(SE)= -0.133 (0.03) vs. -0.061 (0.026) for LBC and non-LBC, respectively, < 0.05]. When further interaction analysis was conducted, we identified interaction effects between left-behind status and bullying victimization on friend satisfaction ( = 0.048). Similar interaction effect between bullying victimization and left-behind status on school satisfaction was also found ( = 0.004). Bullying victimization was associated with low life satisfaction (including lower family, friends, school, self, and environment satisfaction). There were significant interactions between left-behind status and bullying victimization on friend satisfaction, as well as school satisfaction. Left-behind status of children may exaggerate the impact of bullying victimization on friends/school satisfaction rating.
