581 - Associations Between Severity of Chronic Medical, Developmental, or Mental Health Conditions and Bullying Involvement among US School-Age Children

Poster Number: 581
Publication Number: 581.308

Hailey D. Reisert, Cohen Children's Medical Center, Durham, NC, United States; Eli Rapoport, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States; Duy Q. Pham, Cohen Children's Medical Center, New York, NY, United States; ANDREW ADESMAN, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, ROSLYN, NY, United States

Background: Children with chronic conditions are at increased risk of bullying involvement. However, research examining associations between condition severity and bullying is limited.

Objective: To investigate associations between severity of 13 medical, developmental, or mental health conditions and bullying victimization or perpetration.

Design/Methods: A secondary analysis of the 2018-2019 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), a nationally representative survey of non-institutionalized children in the US, was performed. Based on caregiver responses, children ages 6-17 (n=43,213) were classified as perpetrators (if bullied others ≥1-2x/month), victims (if victimized ≥1-2x/month and not a perpetrator), or uninvolved (neither a perpetrator nor a victim). Logistic regressions were used to investigate associations between bullying involvement and 13 chronic medical, developmental, or mental health conditions (e.g., asthma, autism, anxiety, respectively). For children with conditions associated with being a victim and/or perpetrator, logistic regressions were used to further investigate associations between condition severity and being a victim or perpetrator. Models were adjusted for key sociodemographic factors (e.g., child age, caregiver education, household income). All analyses accounted for the complex design of the NSCH.

Results: Sample demographics are presented in Table 1. Children with each condition assessed were at higher odds of being a victim (Tables 2 and 3). All developmental/mental health conditions and asthma were associated with higher odds of being a perpetrator. Severity was associated with at least one measure of bullying involvement for many conditions. Notably, among children with ADHD, anxiety, or depression, condition severity was associated with higher odds of both being a victim and a perpetrator. Some conditions were associated with higher odds of being a victim but not perpetrator, while other conditions were associated with higher odds of being a perpetrator but not a victim. Few had no severity associations. For children with intellectual disability, condition severity was associated with lower odds of being a perpetrator (aOR = 0.12, 95% CI: 0.02-0.83).Conclusion(s): Condition severity was associated with bullying involvement for many of the developmental/mental health and fewer of the medical conditions examined. Pediatricians should consider these elevated rates of bullying involvement when screening children with developmental or mental health conditions to provide necessary resources and decrease the physical and psychosocial impacts of bullying for those at greatest risk.
Hailey D. Reisert - Curriculum VitaeHailey Reisert CV.pdf
Table 2. Severity of Chronic Medical Conditions and Involvement in Bullying Among Children Ages 6-17 in the United States (2018-2019 National Survey of Children’s Health, n = 43,213)