Investigation of the relationship between peer victimization and quality of life in school-age adolescents

The role of peer social relationships in psychological distress and quality of life among adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus: a longitudinal study

BACKGROUND

Adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus suffer from diabetes distress and poor health-related quality of life (HRQOL) since living with the condition that differentiates them from their peers. The present study investigated the effects of peer support and stress on diabetes distress and HRQOL and whether positive coping mediated the effects.

METHODS

We used a prospective study design. A total of 201 adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus from 20 cities in 4 provinces were recruited.Participants complete two separate surveys at approximately 18-month intervals. The scales employed at both Time 1 and Time 2 included the Diabetes-Specific Peer Support Measure, Diabetes Stress Questionnaire for Youths, Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire, 5-item Problem Areas in Diabetes Scale, and the Diabetes Quality of Life for Youth scale.

RESULTS

Baseline peer stress directly predicted diabetes distress and HRQOL at 18 months, even controlling for age, gender, and peer support. However, the direct effect of baseline peer support on 18-month diabetes distress and HRQOL was insignificant. Baseline peer support indirectly affected diabetes distress and HRQOL at 18 months through positive coping, indicating that positive coping plays a mediating role.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggest that peer social relationships, especially peer stress, and positive coping are promising intervention targets for adolescents facing challenges in psychosocial adaptation.

Bullying Victimization and Quality of Life among Chinese Adolescents: An Integrative Analysis of Internet Addiction and Social Withdrawal

Bullying victimization has been proven to be a direct predictor of adolescents' quality of life, whereas elaborate mechanisms remain inconclusive. This study aims to explore the mediating pathway of Internet addiction and social withdrawal on the relationship between bullying victimization and quality of life among Chinese adolescents. This study used the cross-sectional data collected by self-reported questionnaires, including multidimensional peer-victimization scale, youth quality of life instrument-short form, prolonged social withdrawal questionnaire, and compulsive Internet use scale. A total of 1278 participants from four junior middle schools and two high schools participated in the questionnaire survey. SPSS 25.0 and Amos 25.0 were adopted to analyze the data. The results indicated that bullying victimization was directly and indirectly associated with adolescents' quality of life. Internet addiction and social withdrawal partially mediated the relationship between bullying victimization and quality of life among adolescents. The current study demonstrated the underlying pathway of how bullying victimization affected adolescents' quality of life, which could provide an intervention perspective for governments and social workers to improve adolescents' quality of life by controlling Internet addiction and social withdrawal.

Epidemiology of peer cybervictimization and its relationship with health‐related quality of life in adolescents: A prospective study

INTRODUCTION

Research focused on the association between peer cybervictimization and declining health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is scarce. Currently, few longitudinal studies find an association between these phenomena, and none focus on cybervictimization profiles. The main objectives are: (1) to analyze the point and period prevalence, and incidence of cybervictimization profiles (uninvolved, new, ceased, intermittent, and stable cybervictims); (2) to study the relationship between cybervictimization and HRQoL over time; (3) to determine the longitudinal impact on the HRQoL of each type of profile.

METHODS

A prospective study was conducted in three waves over 13 months. A total of 1142 adolescents aged 11-18 years participated in all the waves (630 girls, 55.2%).

RESULTS

The prevalence of victimization for the three waves was 21.6% (Wave 1; W1), 23.5% (W2), and 19.6% (W3), respectively. The period prevalence was 41.3%, and the accumulated incidence was 25.1%. It was found that 24% of the participants were new victims, 5.9% were intermittent victims, and 6% were stable victims. Being a cybervictim at W1 poses a relative risk of 1.73 [1.29-2.32], that is, a twofold increased risk of presenting a low HRQoL 13 months later compared to those who are not cybervictims.

CONCLUSION

One in four adolescents became a new cybervictim during the 13 months of the study. The adolescents who presented poorer HRQoL were the stable cybervictims.

The impact of resilience as a protective factor on Health-Related Quality of Life's psychological dimensions among adolescents who experience peer victimization

Peer victimization have a negative impact on Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) during adolescence, however some personal skills such a person's resilience could play a significant role in this relationship. In this context, this study aims to analyse if resilience is a moderator of the relation between peer victimization and HRQoL's psychological dimensions. Sociodemographic data, peer victimization, psychological domains of HRQoL and resilience were measures in a sample of 1428 secondary school students using the following scales: "Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument-Bullying", "KIDSCREEN-52" and "Brief Resilient Coping Scale. Different multivariate analyses were carried out using linear regression. PROCESS tool was used to examine the moderating role of resilience, with John-Neyman post-hoc approach to quantify moderation. Results suggest that resilience could moderate the association between physical (β =  - 0.0021; p = 0.025) and verbal victimization (β =  - 0.0018; p = 0.024) and the "Mood and Emotions" dimension of adolescents' HRQoL. Nevertheless, this regulating influence appears to be faint (∆R2 0.004). Resilience showed no moderating effect between social victimization and psychological dimensions of HRQoL. We concluded that resilience could function as a protective factor that weakly regulates the negative association between physical and verbal victimization and the psychological sphere of adolescents' HRQoL.

The Impact of the Magnitude of the Group of Bullies on Health-Related Quality of Life and Academic Performance Among Adolescents

This study examines the consequences that physical and verbal/social victimization by peers and the magnitude of the groups of bullies have on academic performance and the psychological and social domains of Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL). 1428 secondary school students in the south-east Spain completed the Spanish version of the "Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument-Bullying" and "KIDSCREEN-52" questionnaires in order to analyse, respectively, peer victimization and the psychological and social domains of HRQoL. Data on sociodemographic characteristics and academic achievement was also collected. Findings emphasise the potential of peer victimization in all its forms as risk factors explaining poor HRQoL in psychological, social and emotional domains. The number of bullies was an imponent and significant risk factor that explains a worse HRQoL in the five socio-psychological dimensions studied (Odds Ratio 4.08, Odds Ratio 9.25, Odds Ratio 4.69, Odds Ratio 2.91, Odds Ratio 11.92). Nevertheless, peer victimization rarely seems to affect academic achievement. Results suggest that much of prevention and intervention are still needed to reduce peer victimization, focusing on large bullies' groups and their harmful impact on adolescent's HRQoL.

Relationship between Bullying Victimization and Quality of Life in Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Taiwan: Mediation of the Effects of Emotional Problems and ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Symptoms

This cross-sectional study investigated the mediating effects of emotional problems including depression, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms on the association between bullying victimization and quality of life (QoL) among adolescents with ADHD in Taiwan. A total of 171 adolescents diagnosed as having ADHD participated in this study. Adolescents completed the School Bullying Experience Questionnaire, the Taiwanese Quality of Life Questionnaire for Adolescents, the Taiwanese version of the Children’s Depression Inventory and the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children. Caregivers completed the Chinese version of the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham Version IV Scale. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the relationships among the variables. The results of SEM revealed that bullying victimization indirectly correlated with QoL through the mediation of emotional problems in adolescents with ADHD, whereas ADHD and ODD symptoms did not mediate the association between bullying victimization and QoL. Bullying victimization should be actively prevented and intervened on to ensure better QoL in adolescents with ADHD. Moreover, emotional problems should be alleviated among adolescents with ADHD with bullying victimization experience to maintain their QoL.

Parent-child relationship and smartphone use disorder among Chinese adolescents: The mediating role of quality of life and the moderating role of educational level

The present study explored the effect of parent-child relationship on Smartphone Use Disorder (SUD) and the mediating role of quality of life (QOL). In addition, we explored the role of educational level from the developmental psychology perspective. Our results indicate that: (1) parent-child relationship could negatively predict SUD among adolescents; (2) QOL played a partial mediator role in the relationship between parent-child relationship and SUD; (3) As educational level increased from elementary school to middle school to high school, the effect of parent-child relationship on QOL weakened. This study showed that adolescents with good parent-child relationship had a higher QOL thus exhibiting a lower extent of SUD. Moreover, the link between parent-child relationship and SUD weakened as the educational level increased.

Joint association of bullying and cyberbullying in health-related quality of life in a sample of adolescents

PURPOSE

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has been analyzed in relation to multiple psychosocial and health problems. However, only a few studies have analyzed the impact of bullying and cyberbullying on HRQoL. The main purpose of this study was to analyze the level of severity of bullying and cyberbullying on HRQoL. The effects of different roles, especially the conjunctions of of victim-cybervictim and bully-victim/cyberbully-cybervictim on HRQoL, were explored.

METHODS

An analytical and cross-sectional study was conducted in a region of northern Spain. Random and representative sampling was employed. The participants included 12, 285 adolescents between 11 and 18 years of age, with a mean age of 14.69 ± 1.73. The Spanish version of the KIDSCREEN-27, the Spanish version of the European bullying intervention project questionnaire (EBIPQ), and the cyberbullying triangulation questionnaire (CTQ) were employed.

RESULTS

The prevalence of bullying victimization, cybervictimization, bullying perpetration, and cyberbullying perpetration was 12%, 8.1%, 10.4%, and 7%, respectively. Significant and negative correlations between all the dimensions of the EBIPQ and the CTQ with the KIDSCREEN-27 were found. Victimization and cybervictimization had more impact than bullying perpetration and cyberbullying perpetration, especially on psychological well-being and school environment. The mixed roles of the victim-cybervictim and victim-cybervictim/bully-cyberbully obtained lower scores than the remaining roles in all the dimensions of KIDSCREEN-27.

CONCLUSIONS

Those in mixed roles related to victimization and cybervictimization obtained the lowest scores in all HRQoL dimensions. The results enhance an understanding of the severity of the problem of bullying and cyberbullying and their impact on HRQoL.