A network approach to understanding bullying victimization and its co-occurrence with depressive symptoms among...

Bullying victimization and its co-occurrence with depressive symptoms have previously been explored. However, the pattern of bullying victimization development and the detailed associations between victimization and depressive symptoms remain unknown.

This study aimed to explore bullying victimization and its comorbidity with depressive symptoms across different developmental periods via network analysis.

Data from the National Children's Study of China (NCSC) were analysed, including a nationally representative sample (N = 23,917, 46.6 % girls, grades 4 to 9) covering 31 provinces in China.

Network analysis was applied to identify core nodes and edges of bullying victimization as well as bridge nodes and bridge edges connecting the victimization community and the depressive symptom community across late childhood, early adolescence, and middle adolescence. The network of bullying victimization and the bridge network of victimization and depressive symptoms in these three periods were compared.

The results revealed the following developmental inconsistencies: 1) "being spoken ill of", "being hit, kicked, pushed, or shoved", and "being threatened or intimidated" were the core nodes of victimization in late childhood, early adolescence, and middle adolescence, respectively, and 2) "being hit, kicked, pushed, or shoved" was more likely to co-occur with "being spoken ill of" in late childhood and early adolescence than in middle adolescence. The analysis also revealed the following consistencies: 1) the consistent bridge nodes were "being spoken ill of" for bullying victimization and "lack of friendship" for depressive symptoms, and 2) the consistent bridge edges were the connections between "being spoken ill of"/"being excluded" and "loneliness"/"lack of friendship".

The findings highlighted the stable critical connection between relational victimization and loneliness/the absence of friendships across the three developmental stages, which might be the basis for the co-occurrence of bullying victimization and depressive symptoms. Joint efforts should focus on identifying and addressing bullying (especially relational bullying) to reduce the risk of depressive symptoms for victims.