Childhood and Adolescent Peer Bullying Perpetration and Later Substance Use: Review and Meta-analysis

• In Event: Bullying Victimization: New Directions

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of the present study was to review and meta-analyze existing evidence regarding the prospective association between bullying perpetration in childhood/adolescence and later use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. Previous meta-analyses (Ttofi et al., 2016; Valdebenito et al., 2015) only included research up to 2014 and were limited to drug use. We hypothesized: (1) that higher levels of bullying perpetration would be prospectively associated with higher levels of all types of substance use; (2) stronger effects for bullying during childhood than for bullying during adolescence; and (3) stronger effects for bully-victims (i.e., bullies who are bullied themselves) than for "pure" bullies.

Method: Electronic databases were searched on March 14, 2019. We included peer-reviewed articles and dissertations in English that reported on associations between bullying perpetration in childhood or adolescence and later use of drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. Records were screened and assessed for eligibility independently by two reviewers. Data extraction and bias assessments were performed by one reviewer and checked by another reviewer. State-of-the-art three-level multilevel random effects models were used to account for dependency between effects from the same sample, enabling inclusion of multiple effects based on the same sample. Separate models were estimated for the effects of bullying perpetration and combined bullying perpetration-victimization, for the different types of substance use, and for unadjusted and adjusted effects. Egger tests and p-curve analyses were performed to assess the likelihood of reporting or publication bias.

Results: In total 215 effects were included from 28 publications, reporting on 22 samples with a total of 28,477 participants. Bullying perpetration was associated positively with all types of substance use (drug use, alcohol use, tobacco use, non-subtyped substance use), also after adjusting for confounders. (See Table 1 for more details and Figure 1 for one of the forest plots). Childhood bullying was more strongly associated with later alcohol and tobacco use than adolescent bullying. No moderator effect of child versus adolescent bullying was found for drug use. For bully-victims, results were more heterogeneous and effects seemed weaker rather than stronger compared to "pure" bullies.

Discussion: The findings of this study suggest that, compared to their non-bullying peers, bullying children and adolescents have a higher risk of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco use later on. Our finding that childhood bullying was more strongly linked to alcohol and tobacco use later in life than adolescent bullying, may be explained by evidence that, contrary to childhood bullying, adolescent bullying may be a strategic and functional response to acquire a dominant position in the peer group (Olthof et al., 2011), not necessarily related to negative outcomes. All effects were small, thus the societal relevance of the association between bullying and substance use should not be overestimated. This being said, we know that peer bullying is linked to other negative life outcomes, i.e., depression (Farrington et al., 2012), offending (Ttofi et al., 2011), and violence (Ttofi et al., 2012) and a higher risk on multiple adverse outcomes may indicate serious problems for child and adolescent bullies later in life.

Authors

• Charlotte Vrijen, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (UG/RUG)
  Presenting Author

• Maria Wiertsema, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (UG/RUG)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mégane Alice Ackermans, University of Groningen
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rozemarijn Van Der Ploeg, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (UG/RUG)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tina Kretschmer, University of Groningen
  Non-Presenting Author