Is involvement in school bullying associated with increased risk of murderous ideation and behaviours among adolescent students in China?

BACKGROUND: School bullying is a destructive behaviour common among adolescents that can sometimes escalate to criminal activity. This study aimed to examine the association between four types of school bullying (i.e., physical, verbal, relational, and cyber) and murderous ideation and behaviours (i.e., ideation, plans, preparation, and attempts) among adolescent students. METHODS: Data were collected from 5726 middle and high school students using self-administered questionnaires in December 2013. The participants were selected using a 3-stage random cluster-sampling strategy. The participants were asked about the frequency of their bullying experiences in the past two months and the frequencies of their murderous ideation and behaviours in the past six months. Multivariate logistic regressions were performed to explore the association between school bullying and murderous ideation and behaviours. RESULTS: Each type of school bullying perpetration was associated with murderous ideation and behaviours, as was each type of bullying victimization. Students who experienced more types of school bullying perpetration and victimization were more likely to report murderous ideation and behaviours. Moreover, the number of types of bullying perpetration and victimization had a dose-response association with murderous ideation and behaviours (aOR min = 1.45, aOR max = 2.72), as did the frequency of involvement in bullying perpetration and victimization (aOR min = 1.33, aOR max = 2.00). Being a bully-victim was a risk factor for murderous ideation and behaviours (aOR min = 3.88, aOR max = 7.24). CONCLUSIONS: Each type of school bullying was associated with an increased risk for murderous ideation and behaviours among adolescents. Dose-response relationships between the frequency of bullying and number of bullying types experienced and murderous ideation and behaviours were found in this study. Future studies are warranted to confirm our findings and explore the mechanisms underlying the relationship between school bullying and murderous ideation and behaviours. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12888-019-2108-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.