Minor Symptoms Talk: How Children React to Encountered Bullying

This study categorized school aged children by their bullying-related experiences and examined how such experiences impact their health outcomes and risk behaviors. Participants included 8955 children aged 11-to-16-year-old (50.3% males) from the Health Behavior of School-Aged Children (HBSC) 2009–2010 dataset, a nationally representative U.S. sample. Experiences of bullying and being bullied, health outcomes of minor symptoms, risk behaviors, and number of bullying types were measured. The associations were examined using logistic regression analysis with Bully Only, Victim Only, and Bully/Victim groups across gender. The Bully/Victim group had the worst health and behavioral outcomes among the groups. A clear gradient indicated that participants who experienced more types of bullying had higher possibilities of leading to risk behaviors and poor health, and the phenomenon persists through these studied symptoms. Girls tended to have more internalizing problems while boys tended to have more externalizing problems. The timely identification of minor psychosomatic symptoms may be used in the early detection on whether children are encountering bullying. Preventive interventions for reduce the harm are warranted.