Objective:
To understand the association between bullying and anxiety symptoms of boarding middle school students, and to provide a scientific basis for preventing bullying and promoting mental health of boarding middle school students.
Methods:
By using stratified cluster random sampling method, 2 823 students were selected from 10 schools in Anyang, Henan Province. Questionnaire survey using self-designed bullying items and Mental Health Scale of Chinese Middle School Students was administered.
Results:
The overall prevalence of school bullying was 37.9%, with boarding school students(38.9%) being higher than non-boarding school students (37.1%). The anxiety symptom reporting rate of boarding students (42.9%) was higher than that of non-boarding students (27.3%). Binary Logistic regression analysis showed that, compared with non-boarding students, bully victim and bully perpetuator/victim students were more likely to have anxiety symptoms (OR=2.30, 6.04,1.94, 4.23) (P<0.05).
Conclusion
There is a correlation between different roles of campus bullying and anxiety symptoms among boarding and non-boarding school students. Boarding school students have a higher risk of anxiety symptoms, especially among those with both experiences of bully perpetuator/victim.