Peer-reviewed article
Subjective Well-Being and Bullying Victimisation: A Cross-National Study of Adolescents in 64 Countries and Economies
Ioannis Katsantonis, Beatriz Barrado, Ros McLellan, Gregorio Giménez ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how bullying victimisation affects adolescents' subjective well-being using data from over 329,000 students across 64 countries. The research found that students who experience bullying report lower life satisfaction and positive affect, even after accounting for other factors that influence well-being. The negative effects of bullying were particularly strong for high-performing students. The findings highlight the need for school-based intervention programmes to address bullying and improve student well-being.
Key points
- Bullying victimisation was negatively and significantly related to overall life satisfaction
- Bullying victimisation was negatively and significantly related to positive affect
- The negative relationship between bullying and well-being was more pronounced for top performing students
- Study analysed nationally-representative data from 329,015 adolescents across 64 high and middle-income countries and economies
- Locally adapted intervention programmes are needed to tackle school bullying and foster positive school climate
Limitations
The document is a cross-sectional analysis using the 2018 PISA survey, so causality cannot be established; only correlation is demonstrated. The study does not evaluate specific interventions, so we cannot determine which types of bullying prevention programmes are most effective.
Abstract
Abstract Bullying is a recognised serious public problem affecting many students worldwide. Despite the well-established empirical evidence for the negative consequences of bullying on adolescents? mental and physical health and educational outcomes, little is known about the link between bullying victimisation and adolescents? subjective well-being. Moreover, empirical studies using comparative large-scale survey data are particularly scarce. This study explores this question using nationally-representative data from 329,015 adolescents across 64 high and middle-income countries and economies from the 2018 PISA survey. Two measures of subjective well-being were considered: overall life satisfaction and positive affect. Multilevel regressions were estimated at three levels (student, school, and country). Results showed that bullying victimisation was negatively and significantly related to overall life satisfaction and positive affect after controlling for a wide set of factors affecting subjective well-being. Moreover, this negative relationship was more pronounced for top performing students. Locally adapted intervention programmes are needed to tackle the issue of school bullying and foster positive school climate and student well-being. Practical and policy implications are discussed in detail.