Author(s)

Georgia D. Kampoli¹, Alexandros-Stamatios Antoniou^1,2, Artemios Artemiadis¹, George P. Chrousos^1,3, Christina Darviri¹

¹School of Medicine (Postgraduate Course Science of Stress and Health Promotion), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
²School of Education, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
³First Department of Pediatrics, “Agia Sofia” Children’s Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.

Bullying is a stressful phenomenon with many effects on the mental and social health of a child. This study examined the association of bullying and stress in children and adolescents. The participants were 574 students from the 5^th and 6^th grades of the primary school and from the three grades of junior high school. The Olweus Bully Victim Questionnaire was used as a measurement of bullying and the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ) and Stress in Children (SiC) were used as a measurement of stress in junior high school and primary school children respectively. 26.3% of children reported being victims of bullying, 7.8% reported engaging in bullying behaviour and 34.7% had been both victims of bullying and had engaged in bullying behavior. 31.2% had no role in the phenomenon. Verbal bullying was the most frequent form of bullying (22%) followed by hidden manipulation of social relationships to hurt or socially exclude the victim (19%). Bullying frequency was the most potent determinant of victims’ stress. Higher distress in bullies was associated with a higher frequency of bullying behavior and more stopping behaviors by adults especially if bullies reported less social support or had many adult-type responsibilities in their lives. Stress management programs to reduce bullying should be the central axis of intervention as stress not only constitutes a mediating factor in bullying but it is also associated with the phenomenon.

Bullying, Bullies, Victims, Stress, Distress, Social Support, School, Children, Adolescents

Kampoli, G. , Antoniou, A. , Artemiadis, A. , Chrousos, G. and Darviri, C. (2017) Investigating the Association between School Bullying and Specific Stressors in Children and Adolescents. Psychology, 8, 2398-2409. doi: 10.4236/psych.2017.814151.