School bullying victimization and perpetration among Chinese adolescents: A latent class approach

Understanding the unique patterns of school bullying involvement among adolescents is critical to developing efficient interventions for reducing school violence. The present study identifies latent classes of school bullying victimization and perpetration, focusing on traditional and cyberbullying among student peer networks. Data came from a national school bullying survey (N = 3,675) among students from 4th grade (primary school) to 12th grade (high school) across seven provinces in Mainland China. Latent class models identified latent subgroups of students by gender (1,903 females and 1,772 males) using four binary indicators: traditional bullying victimization, cyberbullying victimization, traditional bullying perpetration, and cyberbullying perpetration. We found four distinct latent classes for both genders, respectively. Three classes emerged in both male and female students (1) traditional and cyberbullying perpetrator-victims, (2) traditional bullying victims, and (3) minimal involvement. Although a bullying perpetrator class was identified in both male and female groups, male students in this class had a high probability of engaging in both traditional and cyberbullying behaviors against their school peers, whereas the bullying perpetrator class emerged in the female group was mainly involved only in traditional bullying. The findings revealed gender similarities and differences in the patterns of school bullying involvement in Chinese adolescents. In addition, covariates significantly associated with school bullying patterns included (a) attending boarding school, (b) level of schooling (e.g., primary, middle, and high school), and (c) self-perceived academic performance. Recommendations for school bullying interventions and future research directions are discussed.