Did the prevalence of traditional school bullying increase after COVID-19? Evidence from a two-stage cross-sectional study before and during COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has had a range of adverse effects on the behavior and mental health of adolescents globally, including bullying, anxiety and depression. However, there is a lack of comparative studies on the changes of school bullying before and during COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE: To examine the changes in traditional bullying before and during COVID-19 pandemic and reveal the related risk factors in Shantou, China. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Two samples of secondary school students were collected in 2018 and 2021 in Shantou, respectively. METHODS: Bullying history and risk behaviors of students were measured in the past six months. The χ(2) test was used to analyze differences in baseline information and bullying types. The binary logistic regression with Forward LR method was used to analyze factors that affect the risk of bullying victimization and perpetration before and during COVID-19. RESULTS: A total of 5782 secondary school students were included, 3071 before COVID-19 pandemic and 2711 during COVID-19. The prevalence of different types of victimization and perpetration all increased during COVID-19 (P < 0.001). Boarding, being a lower secondary school student (as opposed to upper secondary school), being male (as opposed to female), drinking, and playing violent video games were shared risk factors for bullying victimization and perpetration. Living in an urban (as opposed to rural and island) was a risk factor for perpetration. Smoking was a risk factor for perpetration. All differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: We found that the prevalence of bullying victimization as well as perpetration increased during COVID-19. It suggests that we need to pay more attention to traditional school bullying prevention and control in China in the pandemic context.