Risk and Resiliency Factors Associated with School Bullying and Cyberbullying Among Adolescents in Mediterranean Countries

ABSTRACT

School bullying and cyberbullying are serious public health problems that negatively affect the lives of school-aged children. We examined the correlation between risk behaviors and lack of resiliency factors with bullying and cyberbullying across seven Mediterranean countries. The sample consisted of 33,399 adolescents (51.1% girls) aged 11, 13, and 15 years who participated in the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey in 2018 in Greece, Israel, Italy, Macedonia, Malta, Portugal, and Spain. Bivariate logistic regressions were conducted to test the relationship between risk behaviors, resilience, and bullying. All risk behaviors and lack of resiliency factors examined were related to involvement in bullying as a victim, perpetrator, or bully-victim, both in school and cyberbullying. Moreover, the odds of involvement in school bullying and cyberbullying increased as the number of risk behaviors and the lack of resiliency factors grew. Our results may contribute to the development and implementation of anti-bullying programs.

KEYWORDS:

• Bullying
• cyberbullying
• risk behaviors
• resiliency factors

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Institutional review board statement

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of HBSC and approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Bar Ilan University (code RO-10203) (05//2018).

Informed consent statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by grants from them ministries of health, education, and public security. The Israel HBSC research team is supported by the Department of Health. Funding number: 430/21.

Notes on contributors

Rotem Maor

Rotem Maor has a Ph.D. in Education, is a Lecturer at David Yellin College of Education in Israel. Her main research interests include: social rejection, bullying and cyberbullying.

Tesler Riki

Dr. Tesler Riki is currently a lecturer in the Department of Health Systems Management at Ariel University in Ariel, Israel. She lectures on the topics of health education and promotion, epidemiology, the sociology of health, and risk and health behaviors among teenagers and adults, with a particular emphasis on intervention programs. She is a researcher connected to the international Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) program, which focuses on the health and welfare of children and youth.

Giladi Ariela

Giladi Ariela received her Ph.D. in education from Ariel University, Israel, where she presently lectures. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the HBSC-Israel, an international research program on adolescent well-being and health, at Bar Ilan University Faculty of Education. Her focus of research includes higher education, foreign language learning, self-efficacy, effort, wellbeing, adolescents, risk behaviors, and emotional health.

Ben-Meir Lilach

Lilach Ben-Meir received her Ph.D. in psychology from Ariel University and her MA in Social-Organizational Psychology from Bar Ilan University. In addition to her academic qualifications, Lilach has wide-ranging practical experience in the field of human resources and career development consulting. Her focus of research includes workplace well-being, burnout, work locus of control, and job embeddedness. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the HBSC-Israel, an International Research Program on Adolescent Well-Being and Health, at Bar Ilan University.

Jerassi Meital

Jerassi Meital is a Ph.D candidate at The International Research Program on Adolescent Well-Being and Health, School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

Adilson Marques

Adilson Marques is a professor at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Physical Education, a master’s in Public Health, and PhDs in Sciences of Education, Sports Science and Health Sciences.

Harel-Fisch Yossi

Professor Yossi Harel-Fisch is the Founding-Director of the International Research Center on Adolescent Well-Being and Health at the School of Education at Bar Ilan University, and served for the past decade as Chief Scientist of the Israel Anti-Drug Authority (IADA). Back in the late 90’s, Harel-Fisch founded the Well-Being International (WBI) Institute - an institute working with governments, communities and schools, to reduce addiction and other risk behaviors and achieve mental health and well-being among children, youth and young adults.