School of Health and Human Performance, Dalhousie University, 6299 South Street, Halifax, NS, B3H 4R2, Canada.
School of Public Health, 3-300 Edmonton Clinic Health Academy, University of Alberta, 11405 - 87 Ave, Edmonton, AB, T6G 1C9, Canada.
Can J Public Health. 2019 Aug;110(4):497-505. doi: 10.17269/s41997-019-00179-3. Epub 2019 Feb 7.
Bullying and its potential consequence for poor mental health constitutes a public health concern, yet there is a dearth of longitudinal studies examining the topic. This study examines the temporal relationship between childhood bullying behaviours (being a victim, being a bully, or being a bully and a victim) and physician-diagnosed internalizing disorders over a 7-year timespan.
Data from the 2003 Children's Lifestyle and School performance Study (CLASS), a population-based health survey of grade 5 students in Nova Scotia, Canada were linked to administrative health-care records to examine the relationship between bullying behaviours and services where a physician diagnosis of an internalizing disorder (ID) was received. Negative binomial regression analyses were conducted to examine this relationship.
Of the 4694 participants, 33.3% reported being involved in some form of bullying behaviour and 24.1% had a service where a physician diagnosis of ID was given over a 7-year timespan. Compared with children who reported not being involved in bullying behaviours, children who reported being a victim of bullying had a higher rate of subsequent physician-diagnosed ID services (IRR = 1.38, 95% CI = 1.11, 1.70). Children who reported being a bully had a lower rate of ID services (IRR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.46, 0.99), while there was no difference for those who reported between being a bully and a victim (bully-victim) with respect to ID services.
Bullying behaviours should be considered a serious public health issue due to their high prevalence in school environments and detrimental effects on the mental health of adolescents.
欺凌行为及其对心理健康不良的潜在影响是一个公共卫生问题，但缺乏研究欺凌行为的纵向研究。本研究在 7 年的时间跨度内，考察了儿童期欺凌行为（受欺凌者、欺凌者或欺凌者和受欺凌者）与医生诊断的内化障碍之间的时间关系。
对加拿大新斯科舍省五年级学生进行的基于人群的健康调查——2003 年儿童生活方式和学校表现研究（CLASS）的数据进行了链接，以检查欺凌行为与接受医生诊断的内化障碍服务之间的关系。采用负二项回归分析来检验这种关系。
在 4694 名参与者中，33.3%报告存在某种形式的欺凌行为，24.1%在 7 年内接受过医生诊断为内化障碍的服务。与未参与欺凌行为的儿童相比，报告受欺凌的儿童随后接受医生诊断为内化障碍服务的比率更高（IRR=1.38，95%CI=1.11，1.70）。报告欺凌行为的儿童接受内化障碍服务的比率较低（IRR=0.67，95%CI=0.46，0.99），而报告欺凌者和受害者之间存在欺凌行为的儿童则无差异（bully-victim）与内化障碍服务相关。
由于欺凌行为在学校环境中普遍存在且对青少年心理健康有不良影响，应将其视为严重的公共卫生问题。
