Health effects of perceived racial and religious bullying among urban adolescents in China: A cross-sectional national study

Abstract

Research concerning ethnocultural bullying and adolescent health in China remains extremely limited. This study among Chinese urban adolescents examines associations between ethnocultural bullying and eight health-related outcomes: suicidal ideation, suicide planning, depressive symptomology, anxiety symptomatology, fighting, injury intentionally inflicted by another, smoking and moderate/heavy alcohol consumption. Data were obtained from the World Health Organisation's 2003 Chinese Global School-based Health Survey, a cross-sectional national survey of urban adolescents in four Chinese cities. The analytic sample size was n = 8182, which represented a sampling frame of 769,835 adolescents. Statistical analysis was conducted using generalised linear mixed effects models and sampling weights. Prevalence of ethnocultural bullying was significantly higher in Urumqi, Xinjiang province (2.08%) compared with Beijing municipality (0.72%) or Wuhan, Hubei province (0.67%). Compared to participants who were not bullied, religious bullying victimisation was significantly associated with suicidal ideation, injury intentionally inflicted by another and depressive symptomology. Racial bullying victimisation was significantly associated with suicidal ideation, injury intentionally inflicted by another and among females but not males, depressive symptomology. Health effects of ethnocultural bullying appear to be distinct from that of bullying in general. Additional research on ethnocultural adolescent health issues in China is warranted.

Keywords:

• China
• bullying
• race
• religion
• adolescent

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the WHO, USCDC and other organisations for making these data available for our study, and the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback. We are also grateful to the GSHS participants, without whom this study would not have been possible. S.W.P. was supported by a four-year doctoral fellowship from the University of British Columbia.