Adolescent risk correlates of bullying and different types of victimization

This study examined correlates of different types of bullying and victimization relevant to the adolescent context. Of particular interest was the importance of risk factors that emerge and/or undergo significant changes during adolescence. Logistic regressions were performed using a representative sample of approximately 6,500 Canadian adolescents. We found that high-levels of victimization (7.6%), bullying (6.1%), and bully-victimization (0.9%) were quite prevalent amongst adolescents. The patterns of risk associated with each of these labels were different from each group. An examination of the different sub-types of victimization revealed that there were differences in both the prevalence and the risk patterns associated with each sub-type. Physical, verbal, and rumor victimization (the most common types) had similar risk patterns, while sexual victimization and ethnic victimization (the least most common type) each had a unique risk pattern. We conclude that emerging and/or changing risk factors associated with adolescent development are significantly related to bullying and victimization, with the specific relationships depending on the specific type of activity examined. These findings suggest that successful intervention strategies should try to be sensitive to the variations in prevalence and relationships with the risk factors.