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Review
. 2024 Feb 14;11(2):241.
doi: 10.3390/children11020241.

Do Hormone Levels Influence Bullying during Childhood and Adolescence? A Systematic Review of the Literature

Izaro Babarro  1   2 , Ane Arregi  2   3 , Ainara Andiarena  2   3 , Nerea Lertxundi  2   3   4 , Oscar Vegas  2   3 , Jesus Ibarluzea  2   4   5
Affiliations
Review

Do Hormone Levels Influence Bullying during Childhood and Adolescence? A Systematic Review of the Literature

Izaro Babarro et al. Children (Basel). .

Abstract

(1) Background: Bullying is one of the most common forms of aggressive behavior during childhood and adolescence. Some decades ago, researchers began exploring the basis of peer victimization from a biological perspective. Specifically, the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) and Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Gonadal (HPG) axes have been studied in relation to status-relevant behaviors, such as bullying. (2) Methods: We conducted a systematic review following the PRISMA guide and registered the review protocol at PROSPERO (CRD42023494738). We searched for relevant studies in PubMed, Psycinfo, Scopus, and Web of Science, and assessed them using the Robins E-tool. (3) Results: Our search yielded 152 studies, of which 33 were included in the review. These studies explored the association between testosterone and cortisol levels with bullying behavior, finding diverse results. Most of the studies were rated as having a low risk of bias. (4) Conclusions: This study not only enhances our understanding of bullying, but also provides guidance for the development of prevention and management programs for it. In the future, researchers should continue exploring the joint effects of different hormones on the HPA and HPG axis, using a broader set of biomarkers.

Keywords: bullying; children and adolescents; cortisol; testosterone.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure A1
Figure A1
Traffic-light plot summarizing the risk of bias in the selected studies. Note: Studies analyzed [29,30,31,34,35,36,37,38,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,67].
Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of the systematic review.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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