Bullying victimization and later anxiety and depression among pre‐adolescents in Switzerland
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17596591111132927 |
| Date | 16 May 2011 |
| Pages | 103-109 |
| Published date | 16 May 2011 |
| Author | Margit Averdijk,Barbara Müller,Manuel Eisner,Denis Ribeaud |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Sociology |
Bullying victimization and later anxiety
and depression among pre-adolescents
in Switzerland
Margit Averdijk, Barbara Mu
¨ller, Manuel Eisner and Denis Ribeaud
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between bullying victimization at
age 8 and anxiety and depression at age 11 in a large and ethnically heterogeneous sample from Zurich,
Switzerland.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors present new analyses from the Zurich Project on the
Social Development of Children and Youth(z-proso) on the relationship between bullying victimization at
age 8 and anxiety and depression at age 11.
Findings – Different measures of bullying victimization significantly predicted later anxiety and
depression. Differences existed between measuresof anxiety and depression from different informants.
Originality/value – First, the paper provides readers with an overview of the victimization data collected
in z-proso among an ethnically heterogeneous population sample of children in Zurich, Switzerland.
Second, it provides results of bivariate and multivariate analyses on the relationship between bullying
victimization and internalizing behavior. Third, the authors investigate if their results are robust across
different measures of bullying victimization and across measures of anxiety and depression from
different informants.
Keywords Bullying, Switzerland, Children, Depression, Individual development
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In this paper, we present new analyses from the Zurich Project on the Social Development
of Children and Youth(z-proso) on the relationship between bullying victimization at age 8 and
anxiety and depression at age 11. In line with the purpose of the current special issue, ouraim
is largely data-centered and threefold. First, we provide readers with an overview of the
victimization data collected in z-proso among an ethnically heterogeneous population
sample of children in Zurich, Switzerland. Second, we provide results of bivariate and
multivariate analyses on the relationship between bullying victimization and internalizing
behavior. Third, we investigate if our resultsare robust across different measures of bullying
victimization and across measures of anxiety and depression from different informants.
Method
Participants
The data were drawn from an ongoing combined longitudinal and intervention study, the
Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youth (z-proso). The study is
sampling a large, ethnically heterogeneous population of seven-year-olds in Switzerland.
The target population for the study consisted of all 2,520 children who entered the first grade
of public primary school in Zurich in 2004. Because the interventions occurred at the school
level, a cluster randomized approach was used for the sampling, with schools as the units of
DOI10.1108/17596591111132927 VOL.3 NO. 2 2011, pp.103-109, QEmeraldGroup PublishingLimited, ISSN1759-6599
j
JOURNAL OF AGGRESSION, CONFLICT AND PEACE RESEAR CH
j
PAGE 103
Margit Averdijk and
Barbara Mu
¨ller are based
in the Department of
Sociology, Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology
Zurich (ETH), Zurich,
Switzerland. Manuel Eisner
is based at the Institute of
Criminology, University of
Cambridge, Cambridge,
UK. Denis Ribeaud is
based in the Department
of Sociology, Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology
Zurich (ETH), Zurich,
Switzerland.
The research reported in this
paper was financially
supported by the Swiss
National Science Foundation,
the Jacobs Foundation, the
Swiss Federal Office of Public
Health, the Canton of Zurich
Ministry of Education, and the
Julius Baer Foundation. The
authors would like to express
their thanks to the children,
parents, and teachers for
participating in the study,and to
all the interviewers and
undergraduate students for
their help in data collection and
coding.
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