Bullying victimization among Chinese school-aged children has recently been recognized as a serious problem. However, studies on the prevalence and correlates of bullying victimization among left-behind children—whose parents live and work in urban areas while they remain at home in a rural area—have fallen far behind. We conducted a study based on one representative sample of 742 left-behind children in Grades 6 to 10 from rural China in 2010. The results indicate that a total of 31.6% of the left-behind children report recurrent bullying victimization, which is higher than that of their rural counterparts who live with their parents. Furthermore, left-behind children who experience bullying victimization are more likely to report being drunk frequently, poorer peer and family relationships, and academic problems. Future bullying prevention and intervention programs should be designed to meet the special needs of left-behind children.
Amuedo-DorantesC.PozoS. (2010). Accounting for remittance and migration effects on children’s schooling. World Development, 38, 1747-1759.
5.
BodenJ. M.van StockumS.HorwoodL. J.FergussonD. M. (2016). Bullying victimization in adolescence and psychotic symptomatology in adulthood: Evidence from a 35-year study. Psychological Medicine, 46, 1311-1320.
6.
CerezoF.AtoM. (2010). Social status, gender, classroom climate and bullying among adolescents pupils. Annals of Psychology, 26, 137-144.
7.
ChanJ. H.MyronR.CrawshawM. (2005). The efficacy of non-anonymous measures of bullying. School Psychology International, 26, 443-458.
8.
ChengY.NewmanI. M.QuM.MbuloL.ChaiY.ChenY.ShellD. F. (2010). Being bullied and psychosocial adjustment among middle school students in China. Journal of School Health, 80, 193-199.
9.
ChesterK. L.CallaghanM.CosmaA.DonnellyP.CraigW.WalshS.MolchoW. M. (2015). Cross-national time trends in bullying victimization in 33 countries among children aged 11, 13 and 15 from 2002 to 2010. European Journal of Public Health, 25, 61-64.
10.
CheungN. W. T. (2013). Rural-to-urban migrant adolescents in Guangzhou, China: Psychological health, victimization, and local and trans-local ties. Social Science & Medicine, 93, 121-129.
11.
EspelageD. L.HoltM. K.HenkelR. R. (2003). Examination of peer-group contextual effects on aggression during early adolescence. Child Development, 74, 205-220.
12.
EspelageD. L.SwearerS. M. (2003). Research on school bullying and victimization: What have we learned and where do we go from here?School Psychology Review, 32, 365-383.
13.
FanF.SangB. (2005). Absence of parental upbringing and left-behind children’s personality, academic achievements as well as behavior problems. Psychological Science, 28, 855-858.
14.
FanL.ZhaoW. (2010). A research of life satisfaction among rural left-behind children. Education, 2, 42-44.
15.
FanX.FangX. (2010). A comparison of problem behaviors between parent-present children and parent-absent children in different care-taking modes. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 18, 232-237.
16.
FanX.LiuQ.LiuY. (2009). A social adaptation comparison of migrant children, rear children, and ordinary children. Journal of Beijing Normal University (Social Science), 215, 33-40.
17.
FlouriE.BuchananA. (2003). The role of mother involvement and father involvement in adolescent bullying behavior. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18, 634-644.
18.
GaoJ. (2010). Analysis on the self-consciousness of rural migrant workers’ left-behind children and the influencing factors. China Journal of Health Psychology, 18, 58-62.
19.
HertzM. F.Everett JonesS.BarriosL.David-FerdonC.HoltM. (2015). Association between bullying victimization and health risk behaviors among high school students in the United States. Journal of School Health, 85, 833-842.
20.
HongJ. S.EspelageD. L. (2012). A review of research on bullying and peer victimization in school: An ecological system analysis. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 17, 311-322.
21.
HuangH.HongJ. S.EspelageD. L. (2013). Understanding factors associated with bullying and peer victimization in Chinese schools within ecological contexts. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 22, 881-892.
22.
KeithS.MartinM. E. (2005). Cyber-bullying: Creating a culture of respect in a cyber world. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 13, 224-228.
23.
LeeC. H. (2010). Personal and interpersonal correlates of bullying behaviors among Korean middle school students. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25, 152-176.
24.
LiuB.OuyangW. (2010). A survey of subjective well-being on rural left behind children. Journal of Longdong University, 21, 119-120.
25.
LukJ. W.WangJ.Simons-MortonB. G. (2010). Bullying victimization and substance use among U.S. adolescents: Mediation by depression. Prevention Science, 11, 355-359.
26.
MaynardB. R.VaughnM.Salas-WrightC. P.VaughnS. (2016). Bullying victimization among school-aged immigrant youth in the United States. Journal of Adolescent Health, 58, 337-344.
27.
ModeckiK. L.MinchinJ.HarbaughA. G. (2014). Bullying prevalence across contexts: A meta-analysis measuring cyber and traditional bullying. Journal of Adolescent Health, 55, 602-611.
28.
NanselT. R.OverpeckM.PillaR.RuanW. J.Simons-MortonB.ScheidtP. (2001). Bullying behaviors among U.S. youth: Prevalence and association with psychosocial adjustment. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285, 2094-2100.
29.
OlweusD. (1978). Aggression in the schools: Bullies and whipping boys. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
30.
PellegriniA. D.LongJ. D. (2002). A longitudinal study of bullying, dominance, and victimization during the transition from primary school through secondary school. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 20, 259-280.
31.
RenN.ShenL. (2008). A survey on loneliness status of children left in rural areas in primary school. China Journal of Health Psychology, 16, 754-756.
32.
SchwartzD.ChangL.FarverJ. M. (2001). Correlates of victimization in Chinese children’s peer groups. Developmental Psychology, 37, 520-532.
33.
SealsD.YoungJ. (2003). Bullying and victimization: Prevalence and relationship to gender, grade level, ethnicity, self-esteem, and depression. Adolescence, 38, 735-747.
34.
SleeP. T. (1995). Bullying in the playground: The impact of inter-personal violence on Australian children’s perceptions of their play environment. Child Environment, 12, 320-327.
35.
SolbergM. E.OlweusD. A. (2003). Prevalence estimation of school bullying with the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire. Aggressive Behavior, 29, 239-268.
36.
StrohmeierD.KärnäA.SalmivalliC. (2011). Intrapersonal and interpersonal risk factors for peer victimization in immigrant youth in Finland. Developmental Psychology, 47, 248-258.
37.
SuS.LiX.LinD.XuX.ZhuM. (2013). Psychological adjustment among left-behind children in rural China: the role of parental migration and parent-child communication. Child: Care, Helath and Development, 39(2), 162-170.
38.
SulkowskiM. L.BaumanS.WrightS.NixonC.DavisS. (2014). Peer victimization in youth from immigrant and non-immigrant U.S. families. School Psychology International, 35, 649-669.
39.
TakizawaR.MaughanB.ArseneaultL. (2014). Adult health outcomes of childhood bullying victimization: Evidence from a five-decade longitudinal British birth cohort. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 171, 777-784.
40.
Tharp-TaylorS.HavilandA.D’AmicoJ. (2009). Victimization from mental and physical bullying and substance use in early adolescence. Addictive Behaviors, 34, 561-567.
41.
TippettN.WolkeD. (2014). Socioeconomic status and bullying: A meta-analysis. American Journal of Public Health, 104(6), e48-e59.
42.
WangH.ZhouX.LuC.WuJ.DengX.HongL.. . . HeY. (2012). Adolescent bullying involvement and psychosocial aspects of family and school life: A cross-sectional study from Guangdong province in China. PLoS ONE, 7(7), e38619.
43.
WenM.LinD. (2012). Child development in rural China: Children left behind by their migrant parents and children of nonmigrant families. Child Development, 83, 120-136.
44.
WillamsK.ChambersM.LoganS.RobinsonD. (1996). Association of common health symptoms with bullying in primary school children. British Medical Journal, 313, 17-19.
45.
WolkeD.WoodsS.BloomfieldL.KarstadtL. (2001). Bullying involvement in primary school and common health problems. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 85, 197-201.
46.
World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. (2001). Health behavior in school-aged children: Research protocol for the 1997-98 survey. doi:10.3886/ICPSR03522.v4
