Bullying victimization among 13 to 15-year-old school children: results from two comparative studies in 66 countries and regions

Abstract

Aim: to examine the prevalence of bullying victimization in 66 countries and territories from five continents based on data from two large international surveys: the 2001/2 Health Behavior in School-aged Children survey (HBSC) and the Global School-based Students Health Survey (GSHS). The surveys provide nationally representative, cross-sectional information on 13-15-year-old school children (N = 218,104).

Outcome measures: Bullying victimization, once or more within the past 2 months (HBSC)/30 days (GSHS).

Results: On average, 32.1% of the children were bullied at school at least once within the past 2 months in countries involved in the HBSC study and 37.4% of children were bullied at least one day within the past 30 days in countries involved in the GSHS study. In both surveys, a large variation in prevalence was found across countries. The lowest prevalence in the GSHS survey was observed in Tajikistan (7.1% for both boys and girls) and among HBSC countries in Sweden (16.0% for boys and 14.6% for girls) and the Czech Republic (17.1% for boys and 14.2% for girls). The highest prevalence for boys in the GSHS survey was found in Zimbabwe (Bulawayo) (70.2%) and for girls in Zambia (67.1%). In the HBSC survey, Lithuania had the highest prevalence of bullying victimization (62.7% for boys and 64.4% for girls).

Conclusion: Victimization to bullying violates the fundamental rights of children; our study suggests that although many countries signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, many have to work harder to fulfill the goals of the Convention.