Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1999 Aug 7;319(7206):344-8.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.319.7206.344.

Bullying behaviour and psychosocial health among school students in New South Wales, Australia: cross sectional survey

R Forero  1 , L McLellan, C Rissel, A Bauman
Affiliations

Bullying behaviour and psychosocial health among school students in New South Wales, Australia: cross sectional survey

R Forero et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objectives: To examine the prevalence of bullying behaviours in schoolchildren and the association of bullying with psychological and psychosomatic health.

Design: Cross sectional survey.

Setting: Government and non-government schools in New South Wales, Australia.

Participants: 3918 schoolchildren attending year 6 (mean age 11.88 years), year 8 (13.96), and year 10 (15.97) classes from 115 schools.

Main outcome measures: Self reported bullying behaviours and psychological and psychosomatic symptoms.

Results: Almost a quarter of students (23.7%) bullied other students, 12.7% were bullied, 21.5% were both bullied and bullied others on one or more occasions in the last term of school, and 42.4% were neither bullied nor bullied others. More boys than girls reported bullying others and being victims of bullying. Bullying behaviour was associated with increased psychosomatic symptoms. Bullies tended to be unhappy with school; students who were bullied tended to like school and to feel alone. Students who both bullied and were bullied had the greatest number of psychological and psychosomatic symptoms.

Conclusions: Being bullied seems to be widespread in schools in New South Wales and is associated with increased psychosomatic symptoms and poor mental health. Health practitioners evaluating students with common psychological and psychosomatic symptoms should consider bullying and the student's school environment as potential causes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

References

    1. Williams K, Chambers M, Logan S, Robinson D. Association of common health symptoms with bullying in primary schoolchildren. BMJ. 1996;313:17–19. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rigby K, Slee PT. Dimensions of interpersonal relating among Australian schoolchildren and their implications for psychological well-being. J Soc Psychol. 1993;133:33–42. - PubMed
    1. Boulton MJ, Smith PK. Bully/victim problems among middle school children: stability, self perceived competence, and peer acceptance. Br J Dev Psychol. 1994;12:315–329.
    1. Mynard H, Joseph S. Bully/victim problems and their association with Eysenck’s personality dimensions in 8- to 13-year-olds. Br J Educ Psychol. 1997;67:51–54. - PubMed
    1. King A, Wold B, Tudor-Smith C, Harel Y. The health of youth: a cross-national survey. 1996. (WHO Regional Publications, European Series No 69.) - PubMed

Publication types