Bullying Victimization of Children with Mental, Emotional, and Developmental or Behavioral (MEDB) Disorders in the United States

This study used the 2018 National Survey of Children ’s Health (NSCH) data of 23,494 children ages 5–17 to estimate multilevel logistic regression with fixed and random effects. Children’s health conditions were treated as level one variables, while family poverty level and neighborhood characteristics such as vandalism and presence/absence of r ecreational centers were treated as level two variables. The paper presents the prevalence of bullying victimization among children with at least one disorder (MDBB = 39.5%), anxiety (20.6%), depression (10.8%), ADD/ADHD (18.3%), behavioral problems (14.9%), learning disability (11.9%), Tourett e syndrome (0.5%), developmental delay (10.1%), Autism spectrum disorder (4.6%), speech disorder (10.7), and intellectual disability (1.6%), respectively. Bullying victimization was positively associated with anxiety (AOR = 1.995, 95% CI = 1.634–2.436), depression (AOR = 2.688, 95% CI  = 2.031–3.557), developmental delay (AOR = 1.804, 95% CI = 1.422–2.288), but inversely associated with Autism spectrum disorder (AOR = 0.614, 95% CI = 0.399–0.946). Neighborhood disorganization and poverty were also associated with bullying victimization. The NSCH data sugges ts that children with disabilities in the US had a higher prevalence rate of victimization. Consequently, effective bullying prevention strategies that can protect and improve children’s quality of life with special needs should be priorit...
Source: Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma - Category: Child Development Source Type: research