Victim profiles and the protective role of school anti-bullying norms: a study of Chinese adolescents

Profiling victimization and examining the role of school protective factors could help educators to intervene in bullying effectively. To advance a more comprehensive understanding of bullying victimization, both face-to-face and cyberbullying victimization were considered in profiling victimization, and the preventive role of school anti-bullying norms against bullying victimization was examined specifically in the present study. We used a large data set of 31,362 students in the fifth to twelfth grade from 68 schools in southwest China. We identified three types of victimization through a latent class analysis (LCA) that included “all-type victimization” (Class 1: 7.8%), “verbal-relational victimization” (Class 2: 32.8%), and “non-victimization” (Class 3: 59.4%). We then performed multinomial logistic regression to interpret the nature of the latent classes. We estimated their associations with gender, grade, and parental punishment, and tested the moderation effects of school anti-bullying norms on these relationships. The results indicated that males were at a higher risk of experiencing all-type victimization than females. Students in higher grades and those whose parents scolded or physically disciplined them were at a higher risk of being in Class 1 and Class 2. We found that positive school anti-bullying norms could alleviate victimization and buffer its correlation with associated factors, including gender, grade, and parental disciplinary practices. These findings highlighted the heterogeneity of the students’ victimization experiences and the protective role of school anti-bully norms. Moreover, these findings could have important implications for research and practices designed to address the impacts and develop intervention strategies for the victims of bullying.