Marina Verlinden

Prevalence of bullying and victimization among children in early elementary school : Do family and school neighbourhood socioeconomic status matter?

BackgroundBullying and victimization are widespread phenomena in childhood and can have a serious impact on well-being. Children from families with a low socioeconomic background have an increased risk of this behaviour, but it is unknown whether socioeconomic status (SES) of school neighbourhoods is also related to bullying behaviour. Furthermore, as previous bullying research mainly focused on older children and adolescents, it remains unclear to what extent bullying and victimization affects the lives of younger children. The aim of this study is to examine the prevalence and socioeconomic disparities in bullying behaviour among young elementary school children.MethodsThe study was part of a population-based survey in the Netherlands. Teacher reports of bullying behaviour and indicators of SES of families and schools were available for 6379 children aged 5–6 years.ResultsOne-third of the children were involved in bullying, most of them as bullies (17%) or bully-victims (13%), and less as pure victims (4%). All indicators of low family SES and poor school neighbourhood SES were associated with an increased risk of being a bully or bully-victim. Parental educational level was the only indicator of SES related with victimization. The influence of school neighbourhood SES on bullying attenuated to statistical non-significance once adjusted for family SES.ConclusionsBullying and victimization are already common problems in early elementary school. Children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families, rather than children visiting schools in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, have a particularly high risk of involvement in bullying. These findings suggest the need of timely bullying preventions and interventions that should have a special focus on children of families with a low socioeconomic background. Future studies are necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of such programs.

Detecting bullying in early elementary school with a computerized peer-nomination instrument.

In this study we describe the PEERS Measure, a computerized assessment instrument that takes an innovative approach to using the peer-nomination method to identify bullying among elementary school children in Grades 1-2. Its psychometric characteristics were measured in 4,017 children from 190 school classes. The intercorrelations between the peer-nomination scores showed congruence of the data (e.g., bullying and peer rejection r = .51, defending and prosocial behavior r = .71). Boys were more involved in bullying, more rejected, and less prosocial. As reports by different informants were used, correlations of peer-reported bullying with aggressive behavior reported by a child him- or herself (r = .37) or by a teacher (r = .42) were in the expected range. Good test-retest reliability as measured by the intraclass correlations (average: .72) further suggests that the instrument has good psychometric properties. In line with earlier research, lower maternal educational levels, younger maternal age, and lower household income were related to more bullying and victimization. Overall, our findings show that the instrument provides a reliable measure of peer relations, thus making the use of peer nominations feasible in early elementary school.

Teacher and Peer Reports of Overweight and Bullying Among Young Primary School Children

BACKGROUND: Overweight is a potential risk factor for peer victimization in late childhood and adolescence. The current study investigated the association between BMI in early primary school and different bullying involvement roles (uninvolved, bully, victim, and bully–victim) as reported by teachers and children themselves. METHODS: In a population-based study in the Netherlands, measured BMI and teacher-reported bullying behavior were available for 4364 children (mean age = 6.2 years). In a subsample of 1327 children, a peer nomination method was used to obtain child reports of bullying. RESULTS: In both teacher- and child-reported data, a higher BMI was associated with more victimization and more bullying perpetration. For instance, a 1-point increase in BMI was associated with a 0.05 increase on the standardized teacher-reported victimization score (95% confidence interval, 0.03 to 0.07; P < .001). Combining the victimization and bullying scores into different types of bullying involvement showed that children with obesity, but not children with overweight, had a significantly higher risk to be a bully–victim (odds ratio = 2.25; 95% confidence interval, 1.62 to 3.14) than normal-weight peers. CONCLUSIONS: At school entry, a high BMI is a risk factor associated with victimization and bullying perpetration, with obese children particularly likely to be victims and aggressors. Results were consistent for teacher and child reports of bullying, supporting the validity of our findings. Possibly, obesity triggers peer problems, but the association may also reflect a common underlying cause that makes obese children vulnerable to bullying involvement.