Isolating Significant Predictive Variables for Bullying Using the Cchaps 2012 Survey DATA

Childhood bullying and victimization in the form of teasing, gossiping, ostracizing, intimidating, and/or physical abuse are common occurrences. Experience as either a bully or victim during childhood leads to poor performance in school and has long-term adverse effects on the well-being of a child, and consequently on their development into adulthood.

A cross sectional study of children aged 3 to 15 years using the data collected from a Community-wide Children’s Health Assessment and Planning Survey in 2012 by the Center for Children’s Health was conducted to determine the main predictors of bullying and isolate characteristics of the victims.

Children involved in fights are 19 times more likely to be bullies (CI:12.0-30.3). The odds ratio for becoming a bully in children involved with animal cruelty is 8.0 (CI:3.47-18.50) and for children who have ever been arrested, the OR is 8.3 (CI:2.7-24.9). The likelihood of being a bully among children who have ever been suspended from school is 15 times that of never suspecded children. The OR for the association between developmental delay and physical bullying is 2.7 (CI:2.1-3.4) and and the OR for the association between problematic social behavior (PSB) and physical victimization is 4.93 (CI:3.9-6.2).

Animal cruelty, physical violence, suspension at school and arrest are all associated with bullying behavior. Developmental delay and PSB are related characteristics of children who become the victims of bullying. These profiles will help identify profiles for bullies and their victims and help towards articulating effective, targeted intervention strategies.