Bullying in romanian school children: the role of substance abuse

Résumé 0

School bullying has an increased prevalence worldwide and its negative effects on children’s mental health are well documented. Children involved in bullying (as bullies or as victims) tend to experience more mental health problems. These children have higher levels of depression, anxiety or behavioral problems compared to their non-involved peers. Moreover, they tend to have high rates of engaging in health risk behaviors, especially alcohol drinking and smoking cigarettes. The present study aims to test several possible mechanisms through which the involvement in bullying behaviors (as bully or as victim) is related to the experience of negative emotional states in school aged children. The sample included in this study (N=4,882) was a national representative sample for Romanian school children included in the Health Behavior in School Children Study (HBSC). We tested several mediation models which could explain the relationship between being a bully and bad temper, using the engagement in risk behavior (weekly drinking and weekly smoking) as possible mediators. Also, we tested if the relationship between being a victim and depression could be explained by engagement in health risk behaviors (weekly drinking). Our results show that involvement in bullying episodes have high prevalence among Romanian children, boys reporting more often being involved in these behaviors (as bully or as victims) compared with girls. The results for the mediation analysis showed that all the mediation models tested are significant. We found that the relationship between being a bully and bad temper was partially mediated by the engagement in weekly drinking and smoking. The relationship between being a victim during bullying episodes and feeling depressed was partially mediated by weekly drinking. Our results support the idea that children involved in bullying episodes might use the engagement in health risk behavior as a coping mechanism for their experience of negative emotional states. Also intervention strategies targeting bullying behaviors should also target the engagement in risky behaviors.