Quality of Life of Victims Bullies, and Bully/Victims Among School-Aged Children in the Netherlands

Abstract

Two studies were conducted to examine the Quality of Life (QoL) of victims, bullies and bully/victims among Dutch school-aged children. Study 1 studied associations of QoL dimensions with self-reported victimisation in the Dutch sample from the KIDSCREEN Project (N = 1,669). Study 2 examined QoL of self-reported and peer-nominated victims, bullies and bully/victims using baseline data from an evaluation study of an anti-bullying intervention (N = 3,483). In both studies victimisation appeared to be consistently associated with statistically significantly poorer child and adolescent QoL in regard to all QoL dimensions measured. The strongest associations were found with the QoL dimension Moods and Emotions and least with QoL regarding Physical Well-Being. This indicates that victims of bullying are generally less happy and cheerful, feel sad and depressed more often, have a less positive perception of themselves and are less positive about going to school than non-involved children. Active bullying was only associated with decreased QoL in regard to School Environment. That is, bullies are on average less positive about going to school and attending classes than non-involved children are. Finally, QoL of bully/victims mostly resembled that of victims; whereas the association of being a bully/victim was strongest with the QoL dimension Moods and Emotions, the association with QoL regarding Physical Well-Being appeared to be statistically non-significant.

Keywords:

• QUALITY OF LIFE
• BULLYING
• VICTIMISATION
• CHILDHOOD
• ADOLESCENCE