A Multilevel Analysis of Factors Influencing School Bullying in 15-Year-Old Students

Background: School bullying causes serious impacts on adolescents’ physical and mental health. Few studies have explored the various factors influencing bullying by combining different levels of data. Methods: Based on the database of four Chinese provinces and cities of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018, this study used a multilevel analysis model that combined school-level variables and student-level variables to explore the influencing factors of students being bullied. Results: Students’ gender, grade repetition, truancy and arriving late for class, economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS), teacher support, and parent support had significant explanatory power on school bullying on the student-level; on the school-level, school discipline atmosphere and competitive atmosphere among students had significant impacts on school bullying. Conclusions: Boys, students who have repeated grades, truancy and arriving late for class, and students with lower ESCS suffer from more severe school bullying. When developing school bullying interventions, teachers and parents should pay more attention to those students and provide more emotional support and encouragement to them. Meanwhile, students in schools with a lower discipline atmosphere and a higher level of competitive atmosphere experience greater levels of bullying, and schools should create more positive and friendly environments to prevent bullying events.