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Abstract
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RATIONALE: Substantial evidence indicates that involvement in school bullying has been linked to lower quality of life (QoL). Yet there is little information elucidating the link between bullying involvement and QoL in different cultures.
OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the associations between different types of bullying involvement and QoL among adolescents. The moderating roles of cultural values in the relationship between bullying involvement and QoL were examined.
METHODS: This study included representative samples from 35 countries (N = 184,017) using data from the 2017/2018 Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey and the new 2023 World Cultural Map Scores from the World Values Survey Wave 7 (2017/2021). Multilevel mixed-effects analysis was employed to examine individual-level and country-level effects simultaneously.
RESULTS: All types of bullying involvement were associated with lower QoL, with being a victim having the lowest QoL. Adolescents in societies that prioritize higher self-expression values exhibited a reduced propensity to engage in school bullying. In countries with higher self-expression values, there was a more pronounced negative association between bullying involvement and QoL. Traditional/Secular-rational values had no significant and consistent moderating effect on the association between bullying involvement and QoL. Those results were quite similar for both traditional bullying and cyberbullying.
CONCLUSION: These findings imply that cultural values are closely intertwined with adolescent bullying and quality of life. Therefore, prevention and intervention programs should pay more attention to addressing bullying and promoting the QoL of adolescents according to various cultural values.
Language: en |