Speakers
Description
Integrative Statement:
The Health and Peer Relations Study (HPRS) is a large population-based study with the aim of examining exposure to violence, such as bullying, and associations with mental health, along with key moderating and mediating factors. This symposium draws from the pilot study (N=12,721) to examine prevalence and features that may alter prevalence, and moderators of the association of bullying and emotional problems or loneliness. The first study examines validity screening strategies in a large online sample and compares prevalence rates of bullying victimization and perpetration across different forms of validity screening to demonstrate the impact of these methods on retaining high quality survey data. The second study examines the prevalence of bullying victimization across gender and identity-based forms (by gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, grade) and the reasons individuals attribute to their victimization. The third study examines the association of bullying victimization to anxiety and depression symptoms, and the moderating role of diverse gender identities. The fourth paper examines the association of loneliness and bullying victimization and the mediating role of mattering. The fifth paper examines the healthy context paradox where the impact of individual and school levels of bullying victimization are examined in the prediction of mental health and psychosocial outcomes. Findings highlight the importance of attending to gender, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity in relation to prevalence data and as moderators and mediators of the association of bullying, mental health, and psychosocial factors. The implications for schools are discussed.
Discussant: Tracy Vaillancourt
Co-Chairs:
Amanda Krygsman
Irene Vitoroulis
Keywords
Bullying; Mental health; Schools
Additional field for symposia
Paper 1 Title: Validity screening of child and adolescent Canadian students’ surveys
Authors: Amanda Krygsman1, Sarah Hobson1, Adonaï Aly I. Julien1, Shawna Button1, Irene Vitoroulis1,2, Heather Brittain1 and Tracy Vaillancourt1,2
1 Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2 School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Previous research has demonstrated that prevalence rates for risk items such as bullying are higher when examining a complete sample compared to the sample following validity screening (Cornell et al., 2012). Researchers have retained high quality data by screening out those who indicated they were not being truthful on the survey, those who failed attention check items, and reported false answers on open-ended responses (Cornell et al., 2012; Storozuk et al., 2024). We used data from students in Canada (N=13,858) to examine whether prevalence rates of bullying victimization and perpetration were higher for those screened as invalid. Specifically we screened those who: (1) indicated they were not telling the truth on the survey; (2) were flagged as invalid text responses; (3) had three or more of five attention questions incorrect; and (4) the combination of 1, 2, or, 3. We found that bullying victimization and perpetration (i.e., general, physical, verbal, social, and cyber; Solberg & Olweus (2003) cut-off), prevalence rates were significantly higher for those who were screened as invalid compared to those who were not. The rate of inflation for bullying victimization and perpetration varied from 2.30% to 18.75% for those who indicated they were not telling the truth, 2.46% to 35.71% for those who failed three or more attention questions, 3.30% to 35.71% for invalid text responses, and 6.84% to 90.00% for the combination. Lower frequency responses had higher inflation. The findings underscore the importance of validity screening for retaining high quality data and the inferences that are made from population-based results.
Paper 2 Title: Prevalence of bullying: General and identity-based forms.
Authors: Irene Vitoroulis1,2, Amanda Krygsman2, Sarah Hobson2, Adonaï Aly I. Julien2, Shawna Button2, Heather Brittain2, and Tracy Vaillancourt1,2
1School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
We examined the prevalence of bullying in students across schools in grades 4 to 12 in Ontario Canada. Data come from the Health and Peer Relations Study, a representative survey of 12,721 students (Mage=12.56 SD=2.38, 50.5% girls), who completed measures of general, physical, verbal, relational, and cyber bullying victimization. Results indicated that 43.5% of students reported experiencing general victimization, 32.1% reported experiencing physical victimization, 50.7% reported experiencing verbal victimization, 46.3% reported experiencing relational victimization, and 21.7% reported experiencing cyber victimization. Of the total sample, 7.9% reported experiencing bullying because of their religion, 9.6% because of their race/ethnicity, 7.9% because of their sexual orientation, and 5.6% because of their gender identity or expression. Additional prevalence statistics (by gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, grade) will be presented. These results highlight the significant rates of bullying in schools, emphasizing the need to promote school-wide and targeted interventions to reduce rates and impact on student mental health and educational outcomes.
Paper 3 Title: Mental Health Among Bullied Canadian Gender Diverse Youth: An Exploration of Intergroup and Intragroup Differences
Authors: Sarah Hobson1, Amanda Krygsman1, Adonaï Aly Isaac Julien1, Shawna Button1, Irene Vitoroulis2, Heather Brittain1, and Tracy Vaillancourt1,2
1 Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2 School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Research indicates that Canadian gender diverse youth disproportionately experience higher rates of bullying and emotional problems. However, small sample sizes and lack of intragroup explorations have limited these findings. We replicated and extended previous studies by investigating whether bullying predicted depression and anxiety, and if this was moderated by gender identity in a large sample of Canadian students in Grades 4 to 12 (N=12,721; racial/ethnically diverse=40.9%, gender diverse=3.8%). When controlling for ethnicity and grade, gender identity moderated the association between bullying and depression (∆R2=.002, F(2,9936)=13.11, p <.001). Although gender diverse youth had the highest depression scores, bullying more strongly related to depression for girls (b=.366, p <.001) and boys (b=.360, p <.001) than gender diverse youth (b=0.208, p <.001). When exploring intragroup gender diversity differences, bullying predicted depression among non-binary (b=0.179, p=.040), and questioning (b=0.297, p=.003) youth, but not for other gender diverse groups. Gender identity also moderated the association between bullying and anxiety (∆R2=.001, F(2, 9961)=6.49, p=.002). Similarly, despite higher anxiety scores among gender diverse youth, bullying more strongly related to anxiety for girls (b=0.281, p <.001) and boys (b=0.279, p <.001) than for gender diverse youth (b=0.169, p <.001). There were no significant intragroup gender diverse differences. Bullied gender diverse youth reported a high degree of emotional problems, with depressive symptoms being pertinent for certain diverse groups, perhaps resulting in a ceiling effect. Future studies should examine underlying causes of emotional problems among bullied members of this community. Findings lend support for anti-bullying and mental health initiatives.
Paper 4 Title: Loneliness and mattering in schools: How loneliness and perceptions of mattering affect bullying victimization
Authors: Shawna Button1, Amanda Krygsman1, Sarah Hobson1, Adonaï Aly I. Julien1, Irene Vitoroulis1,2, Heather Brittain1, and Tracy Vaillancourt1,2
1 Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2 School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Loneliness is the experience of psychological distress related to the disparity between one’s actual and desired social connections. It is internal and subjective, and it is experienced regularly by 1 in 4 young Canadians. Loneliness has been found to be a predictor of bullying victimization. Little research has explored the association between loneliness and mattering, and researchers have yet to examine how mattering may mediate the relation between loneliness and bullying victimization. Understanding this relation is important because loneliness is a subjective appraisal that could be negatively associated with youth perceptions of mattering. Feelings of mattering, in turn, shape interpersonal resilience and have also been found to be a risk factor for bullying victimization. To examine the associations between loneliness, mattering, and bullying victimization, we used data from the Health and Peer Relations Study, a comprehensive study examining Canadian youth from grades 4–12 (N = 11459; 50.5% girls, 3.8% gender diverse; 59.1% white). Results from our preliminary analyses indicated statistically significant associations between loneliness and victimization (b=-0.49, p<.001), mattering and victimization (b=-0.12, p<.001), and loneliness and mattering (b=-0.60, p<.001). In addition, mattering partially mediated the relation between loneliness and bullying victimization, b=0.80, 95% CI [.06,.09]. Our findings fill an important gap in understanding the association between loneliness and mattering as they relate to bullying victimization at school, with implications for policy and targeted interventions to support students who experience loneliness and difficulties with feeling like they matter.
Paper 5 Title: Bullying Victimization and Problematic Outcomes: The Healthy Context Paradox in a Population-Based Study of Canadian Students
Authors: Heather Brittain1, Amanda Krygsman1, Sarah Hobson1, Adonaï Aly I. Julien1, Shawna Button1, Irene Vitoroulis1,2, and Tracy Vaillancourt1,2
1 Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2 School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Bullying victimization is adversely associated with mental health and psychosocial outcomes (Moore et al., 2017). These effects may be especially problematic for bullied youth in environments with low levels of bullying (i.e., Healthy Context Paradox; Salmivalli, 2018). We investigated how an individual’s experience with bullying interacted with school levels of bullying in relation to mental health, loneliness, wellbeing, and school absenteeism in a sample of 12,721 Canadian students (G4–G12; 50.5% girls, 3.8% gender diverse; 59.1% white). Higher levels of individual bullying victimization were associated with more problematic outcomes across all variables of interest and the effect of average school level victimization varied by school level. Elementary school students (G4–G8) in high bullying environments experienced more symptoms of depression, b=-0.62, p<.001, and reported lower wellbeing scores, b=0.49, p=.033, compared to secondary school students (G9–G12), where average school bullying was not associated with depression or wellbeing scores. Our results support the Healthy Context Paradox: in schools with lower levels of bullying victimization, personal victimization levels were more strongly related to loneliness (b=-0.09, p=.032) and absences (b=-0.32, p=.002) compared to youth from schools with higher levels of bullying. Students from high conflict environments tended to avoid school, regardless of their own personal experiences. Our results underscore the need to reduce school bullying for all students; in doing so, however, we must be cognisant that youth who remain bullied in lower bullying environments may require additional supports.
| Please also indicate what kind of contribution it is: | Scientific |
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| Please indicate what type of scientific contribution it is | Quantitative method study |
