Association between Child Abuse, Depression, and School Bullying among Chinese Secondary School Students

School bullying is a serious social and public health problem. This article aims to explore the association between experiences of childhood abuse and involvement in school bullying, especially considering the mediating effects of depression.

The sample of this study was 3059 students (1584 males and 1475 females) aged from 12 to 20, in eleven Chinese secondary schools, which included six middle schools, four high schools, and one vocational high school in both urban and rural areas. The multinomial logit regression and linear regression were conducted by the two gender groups, to determine the mediating effect of depression in the association between child abuse experiences and involvement in school bullying.

This study indicated that female students were less likely to be involved in school bullying. Male students were more represented in the bully-victim group and experienced more physical and mental abuse during childhood. Depression was a mediator between childhood abuse and involvement in school bullying. Nevertheless, there was a gender difference in that depression fully mediated the relationship between the two variables among female students, while it only partially meditated such a relationship for male students.

These findings indicate that more school-based service interventions and evidence-based research are needed to more thoroughly investigate school bullying and its predictors in China.